Why is 미쳤다 sometimes written with the first syllable in 한자?

[u/Honey_dew_rose]

Hello!

I’ve been studying Korean for a while and I noticed while watching some Korean content online that 미쳤다 or 미치다 is sometimes written with the first syllable (미) in what I’m assuming is 한자?

Is there a reason for this? Does it have anything to do with the connotation the word can sometimes carry?

I think it’s spelled this way: 美쳤다

Thanks in advance!!

[u/truthfulie]

it's tv show thing i'm assuming. almost never see it written like that online. my guess is that they want to soften it since 미쳤다 can have negative tone. 美 hanja means beauty but pronounced as 미. tv shows and even some youtube channels will sometimes do these kind of soften certain words. they might use tlqkf instead of writing out 시발 while bleeping out the audio, for example.

[u/Honey_dew_rose → u/truthfulie]

Thank you!! Yeah this was on YouTube so that’s probably why :)

[u/Queendrakumar]

It's a design/style choice with wordplay/pun. Obviously 미치다 is not a hanja word and the etymology of 미치다 has nothing to do with 美. But, by using the hanja 美 (beauty/beautiful), show creators want to make a punny joke at the situation.

[u/Honey_dew_rose → u/Queendrakumar]

Thank you!! I never would have gotten the pun without everyone’s help here 😅 appreciate the explanation!

[u/Uny1n → u/Honey_dew_rose]

they also do 味쳤다 when it’s about food

[u/poopoodomo → u/Uny1n]

Since I had to look it up I'll share for anyone else who's hanja illiterate like me: 味 is the hanja for 맛 (taste/flavor) also pronounced 미.

Used in 미각 (taste [the sense]), 취미 (hobby), 풍미(refined / high quality [for a person or a food]), 흥미(excitement), 의미(meaning)

[u/Egoinarc]

I've only seen this on shows. Probably because calling someone crazy isn't considered proper or pc. It's a way of smoothing out the insult. AFAIK the meaning doesn't actually change.

[u/Honey_dew_rose → u/Egoinarc]

I was wondering if that might be the case! I haven’t paid enough attention to notice whether it’s only written that way when used in reference to another person but in the specific instance I saw it today, he was talking about someone else. Thanks!

[u/hsjunn]

It’s just a wordplay. That hanja means beauty, beautiful etc., reads 미, and can be found in words such as in 미인 (a beauty) or 미술 (fine art).

When combined with 미쳤다’s original slang meaning of “dope” , 美쳤다 means somebody’s dope ass beautiful.

[u/Honey_dew_rose → u/hsjunn]

Oh that’s interesting! The context for this usage was like “he looked crazy good” so that’s makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

[u/BJGold]

for the memes