A Glossary of Korean Keyboard Slang

Korean keyboard talk has its own vocabulary, and much of it does not map cleanly onto English. Some words describe sensations the English-speaking hobby only named later ("thock" has a Korean sibling that is twenty years older). Some describe social arrangements that exist only in Korea. And a few are just funny. This glossary covers the terms you are most likely to meet in a KBDMania thread or a Korean marketplace listing, roughly grouped. Romanisations are approximate. For the full Korean-language glossary, which has over a thousand entries, see the Korean glossary.

Feel

키감 (ki-gam) · key feel. The umbrella word for the whole tactile experience of a keyboard: switch, weight, case, plate, keycaps. The single most-used evaluative term on the site.

타건 (ta-geon) · striking the keys. Typing, considered as a physical act. "타건감" is typing feel, "타건음" is typing sound, and a "타건 영상" is a typing test video.

손맛 (son-mat) · literally "hand taste." The pleasure your hand takes in a keyboard, as a fisherman speaks of the feel of a fish on the line. Harder to pin down than 키감 and used when a reviewer has run out of specifications. A four-part 2011 review of the Realforce 10th anniversary model titled its final instalment simply "손맛."

구분감 (gubun-gam) · the sense of distinction. Tactility, specifically the sensation that tells you a key has registered. A 2015 Tips & Tech post noted that the word appeared in only one thread title on the site but in about 2,400 comments, then set out to define it: browns and Topre have it through touch, blues through touch and sound, blacks and reds have none and you learn the actuation point instead.

묵직함 (muk-jik-ham) · heft. The solid, weighty feel of heavy springs, a metal case and thick keycaps. A compliment.

쫀득 (jjon-deuk) · chewy. Elastic, springy feel. Common in descriptions of Topre and gasket-mount boards.

서걱임 / 사각거림 (seo-geok-im / sa-gak-geo-rim) · scratchiness. The dry, gritty feel of an unlubed switch. The thing lubing is supposed to fix.

Sound

통울림 (tong-ul-lim) · "barrel ringing." Case resonance: the hollow echo of a keystroke inside an empty plastic case. Posts titled "Let's get rid of 통울림" go back to at least 2006, when the fix was rectangles of 2 mm foam board cut to 44.1 × 18 mm and stacked inside a Cherry G80-3000. The 2013 KMAC brass-plate experiment was also, in its author's words, about 통울림.

도각 (do-gak) · the deep, rounded sound of a Topre board. Korea's "thock," in use long before the English word spread. "도각도각" is the full onomatopoeia; "도각임" the noun.

또각 (tto-gak) · the brighter, harder "clack" of thin PBT or a plateless board. Both 도각 and 또각 are positive.

뽀각 (ppo-gak) · a softer, more muffled variant; often the highest compliment for a Topre sound.

딸깍 (ttal-kkak) · the click of a blue switch.

먹먹함 (meok-meok-ham) · muffled. Over-damped, dead sound. Usually a complaint, as in a 2013 post about a workshop's stabilizer job that was "too 먹먹."

철심 (cheol-sim) · "iron core." A stabilizer wire. "철심 소음" is stabilizer rattle; posts about taming it date to 2006.

Parts and builds

무접점 (mu-jeop-jeom) · "no contact point." Capacitive switches, in practice Topre. Not "electro-capacitive," not "Topre": Koreans name the technology.

리얼 / 해피 / 마제 (ri-eol / hae-pi / ma-je) · the Realforce, the Happy Hacking Keyboard, the Filco Majestouch. The three production boards against which everything else was measured from 2008 to about 2015.

보강판 (bo-gang-pan) · "reinforcing plate." The switch plate. "풀보강" is a full plate build; "무보강" is plateless.

알루 (al-lu) · aluminum, as in "알루 하우징." Also "서스" (SUS) for stainless steel, from the Japanese/Korean industrial abbreviation.

범폰 (beom-pon) · from "Bumpon," 3M's trade name for rubber feet. In Korean customs it came to mean the feet generally, including machined metal ones; the LZ.87's stainless feet were its 범폰.

변흑 / 변청 / 변태축 (byeon-heuk / byeon-cheong / byeon-tae-chuk) · a switch whose stock spring has been swapped, usually for a lighter one. 변 (modified) plus the stem colour: 변흑 is a black with a lighter spring. Coined in the 2008 switch tutorial and still standard in marketplace listings.

윤활 (yun-hwal) · lubrication. "풀윤활" is a full lube job. The associated warning, for Topre boards, has its own article.

공방 (gong-bang) · workshop. A member or small business that assembles customs for a fee. Which 공방 did your stabilizers is a legitimate review topic.

자체 경사 (ja-che gyeong-sa) · self-angled. A case whose typing angle is machined in rather than provided by feet. A selling point of KMAC2.

Money and the marketplace

공제 / 공구 (gong-je / gong-gu) · joint production / joint purchase. The two kinds of group buy, and the difference matters; there is an article about it.

점 (jeom) · "point." Ten thousand won, in marketplace shorthand. "38점" is ₩380,000. Every price in the 2012 custom price list is in 점.

장터 (jang-teo) · marketplace. KBDMania's buy-and-sell board, 75,000 listings deep. Access required a points level from 2009.

쿨매 (kul-mae) · "cool sale." A listing priced below market with no haggling expected. Gone in minutes; the subject of much envy.

되팔이 (doe-pal-i) · reseller, flipper. Someone who buys a 공제 item and relists it at a premium. The 2012 price-list post exists to shame this person.

직거래 (jik-geo-rae) · direct trade. Meeting the seller in person, usually at a subway station. "강남 직거래 가능" means the seller will meet you in Gangnam.

지름신 (ji-reum-sin) · the god of impulse buying. "지름신이 강림했다": the buying god has descended. The verb 지르다, to splurge, gives "질렀습니다" (I bought it) and "지름" (a purchase you shouldn't have made).

뽐뿌 (ppom-ppu) · "pump." A post or photo that pumps up your desire to buy. "뽐뿌 온다" is "I'm getting the urge."

People

키매냐 (ki-mae-nya) · KBDMania itself, in two syllables. "키매냐 회원" is a KBDMania member.

옆동네 (yeop-dong-ne) · "the next neighbourhood." The other community, which from 2009 meant OTD. Used with varying degrees of warmth.

입문 / 키린이 (ip-mun / ki-rin-i) · entering the gate / keyboard child. Getting into the hobby; a self-deprecating newcomer. 키린이 is recent slang (keyboard + 어린이, child).

탈덕 / 복덕 (tal-deok / bok-deok) · leaving the fandom / returning to it. Selling everything and quitting, then coming back six months later. The second word exists because the first never sticks.

자게 (ja-ge) · the free board (자유게시판). Where the 356-L was announced, after a phone call to the admin.

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If you meet a term that isn't here, the Korean site's glossary covers more than a thousand, and the archive search will show you the word in use.