What does “ssoda” mean in Korean slang?

쏘다 means to shoot: an arrow, a gun, a look. In everyday speech it also means to pay for everybody, as in 오늘은 내가 쏜다, “today’s on me.” The image is generosity fired off in one burst. It belongs to friends and workmates; for anything formal you would say 제가 사겠습니다 or 제가 대접하겠습니다 instead.

This vlog gets both senses into one stretch. Word goes round that the CEO 커피를 쏜다, is buying coffee for the whole company, and the narrator heads for the café 쏜살같이 — “like a fired arrow,” the standard Korean simile for moving fast. The closest synonym for treating people to mark an occasion is 한턱내다.