Terms of Endearment

I got curious about terms of endearment in Korean suddenly, because a fellow G-Dragon fan has been calling G-Dragon 남편 and 자기. I went to read up about these words in a blog, and you should too. Really in-depth explanation as well as how people called their husband and wife  in the olden days. 남편 means husband, while 자기 literally means oneself. 야 is usually appended to the end of 자기. Wife's either 아내 or literally, 와이프. 여보 is used by those who have married for a long time. 당신 is the polite way for saying "you", but I guess they use it to call their dearest one too.

Those are for married couples. For unmarried couples, you would use the following (which probably would sound very familiar to a kpop/kdrama fan. 오빠 is what girls called their boyfriends or older brothers. I like Dramabean's very in-depth explanation of that term. 남자친구 (shortened: 남친) for boyfriend or 여자친구 (shortened: 여친) for girlfriend. Adding 아/야 sound to the end of their names also makes it closer. You can also add 내 in front of their names to signify that they're yours.

In Daesung's Look at Me, Gwisoon! (날 봐, 귀순!) song, which was written by G-Dragon, there are loads of terms of endearment :D And I really appreciate G-Dragon and Daesung for introducing me to trot music ^^


여보 당신 애기 뭐라 불러드릴까
Wife, Dear, Baby, what should I call you?

자기야 날봐 어딜봐 날봐
Honey, look at me; where are you looking? Look at me!

애기 literally means baby.

Lyrics credit

Here's a video of Big Bang singing trot (G-Dragon's one precious line of deep voiced trot singing T^T) and Daesung's Nalbwa Gwisoon <3

G-Dragon meant to say oneself on Sketchbook, but the audience and MC both jokingly took it as "dear".

Check it out at 5:21 onwards,

[SHOW] 121020 G-Dragon on Yoo Hee Yool's... by bbvipchannel

I've come across another vocab, 오랜만에, these days. It means (first time) in a while, it has been a long time. The MC said that at 04:22 and 11:14 about G-Dragon's appearance on Sketchbook. And also, at 19:20 by G-Dragon to say it's been a while since he performed Heartbreaker. (It was a surprise performance, for him. Cos they didn't allow him to use his censored That XX song even.) It's used pretty often in tweets and line, and everyday life, I guess. Good to know. And it sounds nice too :)

edit: just encountered 오랫만에 in GD's tweet.
굿모닝 오랫만에 일찍일오났네? 오늘도모두행쇼!: Good morning I woke up early for the first time in a while? Everyone be happy today! (Trans credit)
the difference in spelling might be because 오랫만에 is read as 오랜만에?

Romanisation
남편: nam pyeon
자기: chagi
아내: a-nae
와이프: wa-i-peu
여보: yeobo
당신: dangshin
오빠: oppa
남자친구: namja chingu
여자친구: yeoja chingu
내: nae
날 봐, 귀순: nal bwa, gwi soon
오랜만에: o-raen-ma-ne
굿모닝 오랫만에 일찍일오났네? 오늘도모두행쇼!: gootmoning o-raen-ma-ne iljji-ki-ro natne? oneuldo modu haengshyo!