kimchi

Etymology

It is borrowed from Korean 김치 (gimchi),^[1][2][3][4] also transliterated “kimch'i” and “kimchi”.^[1] The OED takes the Korean word as apparently a phonological development of an earlier form, romanized “chimchae”, recorded in the 18th century.^[1] Dictionary.com explains it as a hypercorrection of an older “cimch'i”, earlier “timchoy”, from Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese 沉 (chén, “steeped”) and 菜 (cài, “vegetables”),^[5][2] and Wiktionary likewise sees it as formed in Korea from these two Chinese-derived elements, "fermented vegetable".^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary instead suggests an unrecorded Old Korean form meaning "salty vegetable", whose second element is also the source of the second part of bok choy.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Korean pickled cabbage dish: the first record is in the missionary magazine The Gospel in All Lands in August 1888,^[1][7] in a report that describes "a peculiar kind of pickle resembling sauer kraut which goes by the name of “kimchi”".^[7] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline date the word to 1898,^[3][4] the date the 1989 edition of the OED also gave.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In English the word has kept the sense of the Korean dish, described as the national dish of Korea.^[3][9] From the late 1970s American military slang used in deep kimchi for "in deep trouble", a euphemism for a ruder phrase:^[10][11] the phrase is printed in the Christian Science Monitor in 1978, and the early citations point to the military; it is sometimes said to go back to the Korean War, but no record from that period has been found.^[10]

Timeline

• 1888 – a Korean dish of fermented, seasoned vegetables, usually cabbage.^[1][7]
• 1978 – in deep kimchi, in deep trouble, in military slang.^[10][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spicy Korean dish of cabbage or other vegetables, such as radishes, salted, seasoned with garlic, red pepper and ginger, and left to ferment: She served the noodles with a side of kimchi.^{[6][3][12][1]}
2. in deep kimchi (slang): in serious trouble.^[11][10]

Related words

• bok choy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "in deep kimchi", 25 November 2022
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Deep Kimchi [deep trouble]", 14 November 2020
11. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins