에드워드 툴레인과 불, 루시의 방랑 이야기

What does “맛이 가다” mean in Korean?

맛이 가다 literally means “the taste has gone” — and Korean stretches that image far past the dinner table. Say it of milk and it’s spoiled; say it of a phone, a jacket, or a car and it’s worn out or busted; say it of a person and they’ve lost the plot. One breezy idiom covers rotten food, dead gadgets, and someone acting unhinged, all through the picture of flavor draining away.

Here a drifter sizes up Edward the china rabbit’s tattered dress and shrugs, “그 원피스도 이제 맛이 간 것 같아” — that dress has gone bad too, i.e. it’s falling apart. Build it as 맛 (taste) + 이 (subject marker) + 가다 (to go); in speech the marker often drops to 맛 갔어. It’s casual, so keep it for friends: 맛이 간 우유 (spoiled milk), 컴퓨터가 맛이 갔어 (the computer’s shot), 저 사람 맛이 갔네 (that guy’s lost it). In that last “crazy” sense it overlaps with the slang 갔다 and 돌았다.