머리

Korean

Etymology

First attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 머리〮 (Yale: mèlí).

Also attested in the Worin cheon'gangjigok (月印千江之曲 / 월인천강지곡), 1449, as Middle Korean 마리〮 (Yale: màlí).

Originally identical to the modern animal classifier 마리 (mari).

Beyond Middle Korean, attested in the twelfth-century Jilin leishi word-list as 麻帝 *mati, thus a case of intervocalic lenition. Perhaps cognate with Middle Korean ᄆᆞᆮ (mot, “eldest child”), modern 맞이 (maji), but the vocalism is different.

Pronunciation

(SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [mʌ̹ɾi]
- (file)
Phonetic hangul: [머리]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	meori
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	meoli
McCune–Reischauer^?	mŏri
Yale Romanization^?	meli

South Gyeongsang (Busan) pitch accent: 머리의 / 머리에 / 머리까지

Syllables in red take high pitch. This word always takes high pitch only on the first syllable, and lowers the pitch of subsequent suffixes.

Noun

머리 • (meori)

head
intelligence
hair
the leader of a group
the radical at the top of a Chinese character
the top or front of an object

Derived terms

곱슬머리 (gopseulmeori)
머리빡 (meorippak)
머리하다 (meorihada)

References

National Institute of the Korean Language (Naver.com mirror) (accessed 2006-12-31), “머리”, in 표준국어대사전‎
Seo Jeong-beom (서정범) (2000), “머리”, in 國(국)語(어)語(어)源(원)辭(사)典(전), Seoul: Bogosa Books, page 246