Hangul Syllable Bbo

The kiss meaning belongs to 뽀뽀, not a lone 뽀. The Korean kiss word is 뽀뽀: repeating 뽀 forms the noun, and adding 하다 makes 뽀뽀하다 (“to kiss”); 뽀뽀해 is an informal form.

A 2005 article by the National Institute of Korean Language proposes that 뽀 imitates the sound of one kiss, repeated to form 뽀뽀.

The same account points to what may be the first written example of 뽀뽀 in Kim Yu-jeong’s 1939 story 애기 (“Baby”). It says the dictionaries it checked through 1957 omit the word; the earliest entry it cites is a 1961 dictionary by Lee Hui-seung. The older expression 입 맞추다 (“to kiss”) is attested from the late 17th century, while 키스 appears in Korean writing in the 1920s.

What does a lone 뽀 mean when someone sends it?

A lone 뽀 has no fixed message meaning; read the surrounding text. The single beat can imitate a peck, but a message may also end on 뽀 as a clipped fragment. Check whether the sender continues with 뽀뽀 or 뽀뽀하다 before reading intimacy into it.