Hangul Syllable Goen

It means “pooled” or “gathered” before a Korean noun.

The Korean learner dictionary lists it as a form of 괴다, “to collect in a hollow.” 괸 물 means water that has pooled; 괸 눈물 means tears that have welled up. Context tells you which English wording fits.

By itself, 괸 usually leaves the noun it modifies unsaid, so a message consisting only of this syllable is a fragment.

Where does 괸 come from?

It follows ordinary Hangul syllable spelling rules.

The related syllable 괴 appears in 1461 in Neung'eomgyeong eonhae, a Korean annotated edition of a Buddhist scripture.

Hangul was created in 1443, and the guide Hunminjeongeum was published in 1446 to explain how to write Korean directly. Earlier systems such as Idu, Gugyeol, and Hyangchal adapted Chinese characters to Korean; they are writing traditions, not ancestors of this block. In Middle Korean, an earlier stage of Korean, 괴다 could also mean “to love”; modern dictionary examples use the pooling sense.

How do I type 괸?

On the standard Korean two-set layout, type r h l s.

The keyboard maps r to ㄱ, h and l combine into ㅚ, and s adds final ㄴ; the Korean input method joins them into 괸.

Text can store the syllable as one block or as three joining Hangul letters (ᄀ + ᅬ + ᆫ). Unicode's NFD form separates them; NFC composes them back into one block. A font or editor may display the separated form differently.