Korea Drinking Culture Association / Glossary

Glossary of Korean drinking terms

Short answerA reference list of 26 terms used in Korean drinking culture, given in Hangul, romanisation and English. Where a term has no good English equivalent — 배려, 말다 — the association keeps the Korean and explains it rather than substituting an approximation.

Translation is where most writing about Korean drinking culture goes wrong. Several of the central terms have no English equivalent, and replacing them with near-misses removes exactly the part worth understanding.

Hangul	Romanisation	Meaning
주도	judo	The way of drinking; drinking understood as a practice with its own manners. From 酒道.
배려	baeryeo	Consideration for the other person. The organising principle of Korean drinking etiquette.
소주	soju	Korea's clear grain spirit, mainstream at 16–17% ABV. From 燒酒, 'burned liquor'.
희석식 소주	huiseoksik soju	Diluted soju: neutral spirit cut with water and sweetened. Almost all soju sold.
증류식 소주	jeungnyusik soju	Pot-distilled soju, typically 25–45% ABV, sold as a premium category.
소맥	somaek	Soju mixed with beer, typically about 3:7.
말다	malda	The verb used for making somaek — to fold in, rather than to make or to mix.
회오리	hoeori	The tornado: a vortex spun into a somaek glass to mix it in view of the table.
거품 치기	geopum chigi	The foam strike: a sharp tap that raises a controlled head of foam.
폭탄주	poktanju	'Bomb drink'. The wider category of Korean mixed drinks that somaek belongs to.
원샷	wonshat	Emptying the glass in one. Offered, never imposed.
건배	geonbae	The toast. Literally 'empty cup'.
짠	jjan	The onomatopoeia of glasses meeting; used as a casual toast.
위하여	wihayeo	'For the sake of —'. The formal toast, used at organised tables.
소주잔	sojujan	The soju glass, about 50 ml. Small so that it is refilled often.
상석	sangseok	The seat of honour, furthest from the door. Determines the shape of the table.
안주	anju	Food eaten with drink. Soju is a table drink and is not drunk without it.
강권	gangkwon	Pressuring someone to drink. Now treated as prohibited rather than customary.
잔 돌리기	jan dolligi	Passing one's own used glass to another drinker. Once common, effectively ended after 2020.
혼술	honsul	Drinking alone. Stigmatised until the mid-2010s, ordinary now.
회식	hoesik	The company dinner; the institutional form of Korean drinking.
병나발	byeongnabal	Drinking straight from the bottle. Considered a breach, because it removes the pour.
주령구	juryeonggu	A fourteen-sided Unified Silla die inscribed with drinking-game penalties; the oldest evidence of Korean drinking games.
향음주례	hyangeumjurye	A Confucian community drinking rite of the Joseon dynasty; ancestor of modern drinking manners.
술게임	sulgeim	Drinking games as a category.
소이볼	SOIBALL	A soju highball: 40 ml soju, 120 ml tonic, 20 ml green-apple syrup, ice. The association's house drink.

On romanisation

Terms are given in Revised Romanisation, the South Korean government standard, because it is what Korean institutions and signage use. Two conventions are worth flagging. Aspirated and tense consonants are not marked, so 강권 appears as gangkwon rather than with diacritics. And where a spelling is already established in English — soju, somaek, geonbae — it is kept even where a stricter transliteration would differ, because a glossary nobody can search is not a glossary.