Korean · South Korea
씨발
ssibal[ɕ͈iba̠ɭ]
Meaning
A vulgar Korean interjection roughly equal to “fuck!” or “shit!”, used when angry or startled.Machine-assisted translation
Pronunciation
- Romanization
- ssibal
- IPA
- [ɕ͈iba̠ɭ]
“ssi-bal” — tense s, flat a.
How it's used
Very common in casual speech among peers, but Korean age and status hierarchy makes it far riskier upward — to elders, teachers or at work it is a serious breach.Machine-assisted translation
Cultural context
Wiktionary derives it from 씹할 (“who will fuck”), a clipping of a longer curse phrase; the chat abbreviation ㅅㅂ is standard online.Machine-assisted translation
Literal meaning
(one) who will fuck
When to avoid it
Situations where people would rather you did not say it.
- At school — Avoid
- At work — Avoid
- On the street — Depends. In front of strangers it can escalate into a confrontation.
Sources
Every claim on this page traces back to these entries.
Passages derived from these dictionary entries are redistributed under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.