착하다

First attested in the Gyechuk ilgi (癸丑日記 / 계축일기), c. 1600 , as Early Modern Korean 착ᄒᆞ다 (Yale: chak-hota), combining adjective-forming ᄒᆞ다 (Yale: hota), with cranberry morpheme 착 (chak). Equivalent to modern 착 (chak) +‎ 하다 (-hada, “to do”, light verb deriving adjectives).

Other than this unusually early attestation, the word only reappears after c. 1700. The original manuscript of the Gyechuk ilgi is lost and the versions that currently survive may have been subject to edits to the manuscript several decades to more than a century later, and Kim Yang-jin 2015 argues that this word is actually a late seventeenth-century loan-calque from Manchu ᠴᠠᡴ
ᠰᡝᡵᡝ (cak sere, “to be strict, to be orderly”), with ᠰᡝᡵᡝ (sere) being translated to its Korean equivalent 하다 (hada).

Alternatively, perhaps derived from the ideophone 착 (chak, “calmly, calmingly, tiredly”), or the homophonous ideophone 착 (chak, “sticking tight”).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕʰa̠kʰa̠da̠]
• Phonetic hangul: [차카다]

착하다 • (chakhada) (infinitive 착해 or 착하여, sequential 착하니)

1. to be good-hearted, to be kind, to be nice [from the 19th century]

   Synonym: 선(善)하다 (seonhada)

   난 착한 사람이 좋아. ― Nan chakhan saram-i joa. ― I like nice people.

2. (colloquial) to be good, to be pleasing [after c. 2005]

   가격이 착해. ― Gagyeog-i chakhae. ― The prices are good [cheap].

3. (obsolete) to be smart, to be intelligent [chiefly 18th century]
4. (obsolete) to be correct [chiefly 18th century]
5. (obsolete) to be outstanding [chiefly 18th century]
6. (obsolete) to be fashionable [chiefly 18th century]

• 김양진 (Kim Yang-jin) (2015) “'착하다'의 어휘사 [chakhada ui eohwisa, The lexical history of chak-hata]”, in Han'gugeo Eomunhak, volume 93, pages 33-54