Origin Story
Of the three daily meals, breakfast and dinner have native Korean names, yet lunch alone is a Sino-Korean word. Jeomsim (點心) means "to place a dot on the mind," and it came out of Seon (Zen) temple life. When a monk in practice felt hunger stir, the little he ate — too slight to call a meal, no more than touching a dot to the mind — was called jeomsim. A famous anecdote tells of the Tang-dynasty Seon master Deshan and an old woman selling rice cakes. Citing the Diamond Sutra — "the past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, the future mind cannot be grasped" — she asked, "Then, master, which mind will you place your dot (點心) upon?" A word that once meant a light bite, not even a proper meal, is today the name of a full and respectable meal in its own right. The lightest of repasts, in short, became the most substantial.
A light snack once taken as lightly as touching a dot to the mind has become a hearty meal of the day. The weight of a meal shifts with the circumstances of the age.
Meaning Evolution
How It Is Used
Let's just grab some noodles for "jeomsim" today and keep it simple.
The meeting ran long, so I worked straight through and skipped "jeomsim" altogether.
The cost of "jeomsim" got to be a burden, so I started bringing a packed lunch.
Related Words
Memory Hook
點 (jeom, dot) + 心 (sim, mind) → just a little, as if touching a dot to the mind → originally a mere snack.
"A single bite once taken as lightly as a dot upon the mind has become our hearty meal of the day."