Korean

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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The oldest indirect attestation is as the calqued Chinese form 水靑木, first found in the Hyangyak Gugeupbang (향약구급방 / 鄕藥救急方) written in the mid-thirteenth century and common in Korean Classical Chinese ever since.

First attested in the Hunmong jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527, as Middle Korean 므프레 (Yale: mùphùlèy), from (mul, water) + 플— (phul-, to be green, to be blue) + (-key, agentive noun-deriving suffix). Literally "that which makes water blue". The bark of the ash tree produces a blue dye.

The generally encountered modern form is a compound that includes 나무 (namu, “tree”). This form is first attested in 1617.

 
물푸레나무 (mulpurenamu)

Pronunciation

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Romanizations
Revised Romanization?mulpurenamu
Revised Romanization (translit.)?mulpulenamu
McCune–Reischauer?mulp'urenamu
Yale Romanization?mul.phuleynamu

Noun

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물푸레나무 (mulpurenamu)

  1. ash tree
  2. Fraxinus chinensis, the Chinese ash tree, in particular

Derived terms

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