Grand Bow
TL;DR · Origin‘Grandjeol’ joins the English ‘grand’ to the Korean ‘jeol’, a bow. It denotes a bow performed not merely prostrate but standing on one&rsq…
Origin
‘Grandjeol’ joins the English ‘grand’ to the Korean ‘jeol’, a bow. It denotes a bow performed not merely prostrate but standing on one’s head — a gesture of respect supposedly far exceeding the ordinary deep bow.
It comes from Super Secret Mart (‘Ssabnida Cheollima Mart’), the webtoon by Kim Kyu-sam serialised on Naver Webtoon. The strip centres on a supermarket created by the conglomerate DM Group that is the biggest headache both within the group and in the whole fictional city of Bonghwang, and the grandjeol appears as a tradition within its world and the signature move of the store manager Mun Seok-gu. In chapter 1 Mun declares he no longer performs the grandjeol, then performs one from the driver’s seat in chapter 4 — the strip itself treats it as an over-the-top running gag.
Spread
Outside the webtoon it became an idiom for absurdly excessive deference. Actually doing it demands the balance and core strength of the yoga headstand, salamba sirsasana, which puts it out of reach for most people; so it circulates as an image and a phrase rather than as an act.
People do occasionally pull it off. The best-known instance is the swimmer Jung Yu-in performing a grandjeol on the water in episode 48 of the 2021 variety show Noneun Eonni (Sisters at Play). The franchise also expanded — on December 13th, 2019 it was spun off as the tvN D web drama ‘Vroom Vroom Cheollima Mart’ — with the result that people who never read the original still know the word.
Usage
- Exaggerating an apology or thanks to a ridiculous degree — ‘I offer you a grandjeol’
- An extreme honorific reaction to someone’s skill or achievement
- Caricaturing a humiliating degree of deference, much as with the Japanese dogeza
The point is not the bow but the exaggeration of a courtesy that is physically almost impossible. It is therefore used in jest rather than in genuine apology; delivered with a straight face it reads as sarcasm.
Sources
- Namuwiki, ‘Grandjeol’ — the grand + jeol etymology, the headstand definition, its status as a tradition of the Super Secret Mart world and Mun Seok-gu’s signature move, and Jung Yu-in’s turn in episode 48 of Noneun Eonni in 2021
- Namuwiki, ‘Ssabnida Cheollima Mart’ — the chapter 1 declaration and the chapter 4 performance from the driver’s seat, and the tvN D web drama of December 13th, 2019
- Korean Wikipedia, ‘Ssabnida Cheollima Mart’ — the author Kim Kyu-sam, the Naver Webtoon serialisation and an outline of the work
