Hangul syllable 벚

벚 means “cherry” in Korean. It names blossoms and trees in compounds.

Hangul was devised in 1443 to make Korean easier to write; its guide Hunminjeongeum appeared in 1446. In 벚, ㅂ starts, ㅓ is the vowel, and ㅈ ends the block.

A 1990 newspaper column traces 멎 in the 1481 first edition of Du Si Eonhae, a Korean translation of Du Fu’s poems, to 벚 in a 1632 reprint. It argues that 벚 changed from 멎 rather than shortening from 버찌 (“cherry”). Korean word-choice lists from 1977–1997 recommended 벚꽃 and 벚나무 instead of Japanese さくら (“cherry blossom”).