상남자 특, 하남자 특
TL;DR · Origin‘Sangnamja’ — roughly ‘top man’ — was an existing Korean word for emphasising manliness. ‘Hanamja’, ‘low man’, is …
Origin
‘Sangnamja’ — roughly ‘top man’ — was an existing Korean word for emphasising manliness. ‘Hanamja’, ‘low man’, is the later coinage built as its opposite, swapping the character for ‘upper’ for the one meaning ‘lower’. It is applied to being timid, unathletic or petty.
The template ‘sangnamja teuk’ and ‘hanamja teuk’ settled in the early 2020s on Korean internet broadcasts, particularly through Chimchakman (Lee Mal-nyeon) and Joo Ho-min using ‘hanamja teuk’ on air as the inverse of ‘sangnamja teuk’. ‘Teuk’ abbreviates ‘characteristic’, and the standard form quickly became a colon followed by a single line of behaviour.
Spread
The format had everything it needed to travel: one line completes it, the subject is yourself, and anything at all can be slotted in. Communities and social media generated spin-offs, including ‘hanamja’ quizzes and bingo cards.
The actual examples reveal what the meme is doing. Against ‘top man: showers in cold water in winter’ sits ‘low man: showers in hot water in winter’, or ‘low man: uses a memory-foam pillow because it is better for your neck’. The joke rests on the fact that every behaviour classed as ‘low man’ is in fact the sensible choice. It looks like mockery of the low man, but the exaggeration on the manliness side is being laughed at just as much.
Usage
- Self-deprecation: labelling your own cautious or practical habits ‘low man’
- Teasing between friends over trivial habits
- Setting the two labels side by side for contrast
It is mostly aimed at oneself or traded between friends. Used seriously to categorise another person, the self-deprecating quality disappears and it becomes an insult.
Sources
- Korean Wikipedia, ‘Hanamja’ — the definition as the antonym of sangnamja and its character-based coinage; the early-2020s emergence on internet broadcasts via Chimchakman and Joo Ho-min; spin-offs such as hanamja bingo
- Namuwiki, ‘Sangnamja’ — the usage of the original term
- Trend A Word #148, ‘Hanamja teuk’ — on the register and everyday use of the phrase
