What does “불륜” mean in Korean?

불륜 (bullyun) is the word every K-drama reaches for when a marriage gets broken. It’s harsher than English “affair,” though. Built from Sino-Korean 不倫, it literally reads “not” plus “human moral order” — branding the act a breach of the bonds between people. Where English hears romance or scandal, Korean hears a broken ethical code. Fittingly, it pairs with 저지르다, “to commit,” the verb you’d use for a crime.

The 倫 in 불륜 is the same character found in 윤리 (yulli, “ethics”) and 인륜 (illyun, “human moral order”), so an affair is framed as literally anti-ethical. The set phrase is 불륜을 저지르다 (“to commit an affair”); a softer, more everyday synonym is 바람을 피우다, literally “to blow wind.” BIBI’s ballad here is titled simply 불륜, singing the sweet, guilty ache that the word normally exists to condemn.