Friday, March 29, 2024
LANGUAGE&CULTURE

Korean winter idiom 삼한사온 三寒四溫

After months of struggling through shivery coldness we were suddenly treated yesterday to a rather balmy 22 °C.

Did we go out and enjoy the weather? No, we didn’t.

We went out today instead. But what was the temperature today?

– 2°C.

That’s right. In one day the temperature has dropped 24°C! We’ve gone from spring (or British summer 😉 ) to winter in a day. Grrr. I KNEW we should have gone out yesterday.

There’s a Korean idiom that describes the Korean winter:

삼한사온 ( sam-han-sa-on 三寒四溫
 ‘three cold, four warm‘.

So in wintertime we can expect around three cold days followed by 4 warm days. This all depends on the wind coming from Siberia apparently.

This idiom can also be used to describe the change of season. As winter thaws and spring arrives we usually have several cold days followed by several warmer days.

Read about a Korean idiom for spring.

2 thoughts on “Korean winter idiom 삼한사온 三寒四溫

  • Hello! Thanks for the blog, I really enjoy it!
    I have a question regarding “winter” idioms: is there a Korean equivalent to the English expression “cold as ice”?

    Reply
    • Yes, there is! It’s 얼음처럼 차갑다 or-um cho-rom cha-gap da. 어름 is ice 처럼 means ‘like’ 차갑다 cold.

      The expression can be used to describe personality too: 어름처럼 차가운 성격 or-um cho-rom cha-ga-un song-gyeok =a personality cold as ice
      There are more examples on the Naver online dictionary here:
      http://endic.naver.com/search.nhn?isOnlyViewEE=N&query=cold%20as%20ice

      Thanks for your question!

      Reply

Leave a Reply