What 된 means
Translate the whole word or phrase. In 된 사람, 된 describes a decent person; 된장 names fermented soybean paste, while 된소리 is a Korean term for a tense consonant. In 되다 (“become” or “turn out”), 된 is used before a noun.
Hangul was created to write Korean directly. Its first record dates to 1443, and an explanatory book appeared in 1446. Those dates concern the writing system, not the first use of 된.
Alone, 된 usually looks like an unfinished word; ask for context instead of guessing a mood.
A 2014 study documents 된장녀 as a gendered online insult; don't use it as a neutral label.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsQuestions people ask
1Why does 된 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type 된
된\B41CCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.