탕수육

Korean

Etymology

Borrowed from Chinese 糖醋肉 (tángcùròu), from 糖 (táng, “sugar”) + 醋 (cù, “vinegar”) + 肉 (ròu, “meat”).

Although the Chinese characters are typically pronounced 당 (dang), 초 (cho), and 육 (yuk) in Korean, the dish is called tangsuyuk instead of dangchoyuk because the word 탕수 (tangsu) derives from the Chinese pronunciation of the word 糖醋 (tángcù), with the affricate c in the second syllable weakened into a fricative s. Because the word 탕수육 (tangsuyuk) was therefore a combination of the transliterated loanword 탕수 (tangsu) and the Sino-Korean term 육 (yuk), the word was not technically considered Sino-Korean. However, Koreans back-formed the second character with the syllable 수 (su), from 水 (shuǐ) ("water"), perhaps because the sauce was considered soupy; the hanja are thus sometimes written as 糖水肉.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [tʰa̠ŋsʰujuk̚]
• Phonetic hangul: [탕수육]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	tangsuyuk
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	tangsuyug
McCune–Reischauer?	t'angsuyuk
Yale Romanization?	thangswu.yuk

Noun

탕수육 • (tangsuyuk) (hanja 糖水肉)

1. tangsuyuk, sweet-and-sour pork or beef