겹다

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

First attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 계우다 (Yale: kyeyGwuta), a transitive verb meaning "to lose to; to be defeated by; to fail to overcome". The verb has the shape of a -Gwu- causative, but the putative etymon, 계다 (Yale: kyeyta, “to pass (of time)”), is not clearly semantically connected.

In the late fifteenth century, Middle Korean /β/ lenited to /w/, which created a series of Korean verb stems which irregularly alternated between coda /-p/ and /-w/. At some later point, kyey(G)wu- was mistakenly reanalyzed as being such an irregular stem instead of a regular /u~w/-final stem, resulting in the modern /-p/ stem. As for the vowel shift, it is likely that with the loss of the Middle Korean consonant G, the stem kyey.wu- was reanalyzed as kye.ywu- after which the second vowel simplified, creating the modern form. Both sound shifts are first widely attested in the eighteenth century. The verb apparently adjectivalized at around the same time, when the object was reanalyzed as the subject of the inflecting stem.^[1]

겹다 • (gyeopda) (irregular, infinitive 겨워, sequential 겨우니)

1. (of task, situation, etc.) to be too much (for someone); to be excessive; to be beyond one's capacity
2. (of a person) to be overwhelmed (with emotion); to be beyond restraint; to be uncontrollable

Presumably from Middle Korean 계다 (kyeyta, “to pass (of time)”), but appears to have merged phonologically and grammatically with the "to be excessive" adjective above, becoming an adjective and undergoing highly irregular sound shifts.

겹다 • (gyeopda) (irregular, infinitive 겨워, sequential 겨우니)

1. (of season, time) to have already passed