삼

Jeju

Etymology

Sino-Korean word from 三. Cognate with Korean 삼 (sam).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /sʰa̠m/

Numeral

삼 (sam)

1. three
2. third

References

• “삼” in Jeju's culture and language, Digital museum.

Korean

Etymology 1

Sino-Korean word from 三, from the Middle Korean reading 삼 (Yale: sàm), from Middle Chinese 三 (MC sam).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Numeral

삼 • (sam) (hanja 三)

1. (Sino-Korean numeral) three

Usage notes

In modern Korean, numbers are usually written in Arabic numerals.

The Korean language has two sets of numerals: a native set of numerals inherited from Old Korean, and a Sino-Korean set which was borrowed from Middle Chinese in the first millennium C.E.

Native classifiers take native numerals.

• 개 한 마리 (gae han mari, “one dog”, native numeral)
• 나무 두 그루 (namu du geuru, “two trees”, native numeral)

Some Sino-Korean classifiers take native numerals, others take Sino-Korean numerals, while yet others take both.

• 종이 두 장(張) (jong'i du jang, “two sheets of paper”, native numeral)
• 이 분(分) (i bun, “two minutes”, Sino-Korean numeral)
• 서른/삼십 명(名) (seoreun/samsip myeong, “thirty people”, both sets possible)

Recently loaned classifiers generally take Sino-Korean numerals.

• 일 킬로미터 (il killomiteo, “one kilometer”, Sino-Korean numeral)

For many terms, a native numeral has a quantifying sense, whereas a Sino-Korean numeral has a sense of labeling.

• 세 반(班) (se ban, “three school classes”, native numeral)
• 삼 반(班) (sam ban, “Class Number Three”, Sino-Korean numeral)

When used in isolation, native numerals refer to objects of that number and are used in counting and quantifying, whereas Sino-Korean numerals refer to the numbers in a more mathematical sense.

• 하나만 더 주세요 (hana-man deo juse-yo, “Could you give me just one more, please”, native numeral)
• 일 더하기 일은? (il deohagi ir-eun?, “What's one plus one?”, Sino-Korean numeral)

While older stages of Korean had native numerals up to the thousands, native numerals currently exist only up to ninety-nine, and Sino-Korean is used for all higher numbers. There is also a tendency—particularly among younger speakers—to uniformly use Sino-Korean numerals for the higher tens as well, so that native numerals such as 일흔 (ilheun, “seventy”) or 아흔 (aheun, “ninety”) are becoming less common.

Derived terms

• See the hanja entry at 三 for Sino-Korean compounds of 삼 (三, sam).

Etymology 2

First attested in the Won'gakgyeong eonhae (圓覺經諺解 / 원각경언해), 1465, as Middle Korean 삼〮 (Yale: sám).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Noun

삼 • (sam)

1. hemp