🇰🇷 Korean Origins #49
Buddhist origin
점심
the midday meal; lunch
From the morsel a Seon (Zen) monk would eat when hunger stirred — just a touch, as if "placing a dot (點) on the mind (心)."
✍️ ONGO · 2026-06-06 · 5 min read
01

Origin Story

Era
From ancient times through the Goryeo Dynasty

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.

02

Meaning Evolution

1
Original meaning
The slight snack a Seon monk ate as lightly as touching a dot to the mind.
2
Derived meaning
A simple bite taken between meals.
3
Modern usage
A proper midday meal — lunch.
03

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.

04

Related Words

공양
Both arose from the meal culture of Buddhist temples.
요기
Akin to the original sense of jeomsim — a light bite to stave off hunger in place of a full meal.
야단법석
Of the same kind — a term from temple life that passed into secular speech.
05

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."

Next Word
무진장
헤아릴 수 없을 만큼 매우 많음
Read →