고지식하다

In the Hangul script, first attested in the Worin seokbo (月印釋譜 / 월인석보), 1459, as Middle Korean 고디〮식다〮 (Yale: kwòtí-sìktá).

The verb was originally a phrase involving the adverb 고디〮 (Yale: kwòtí) "in a straight way; righteously" and Old Korean 爲只 (*SIk-, “to act”), thus "to act righteously". Early Hangul texts preserve this positive meaning. However, by the late sixteenth century, the verb had eventually shifted to the adjectival "to be self-righteous; to be stubborn".

Once the word had become an adjective and the Old Korean etymology had long been forgotten, it was misunderstood as a corruption of an adjective formed by the adjective-deriving suffix 하다 (hada), leading to the modern form via hypercorrection. This began to occur in the sixteenth century, and the original non-hada form had disappeared by the seventeenth century.

Equivalent to modern 고지식 (gojisik) +‎ 하다 (-hada, “to do”, light verb deriving adjectives).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ko̞d͡ʑiɕʰikʰa̠da̠]
• Phonetic hangul: [고지시카다]

고지식하다 • (gojisikhada) (infinitive 고지식해 or 고지식하여, sequential 고지식하니)

1. to be self-righteous; to be stubborn; to be inflexible

   우리 교수님은 진짜 고지식해서 컴퓨터도 못 쓰게 해. ― Uri gyosu-nim-eun jinjja gojisik-haeseo keompyuteo-do mot sseuge hae. ― Our professor is really inflexible, so he doesn't even let us use computers.

• 고집(固執) (gojip, “stubbornness”)