Hangul syllable 쇤

Type 쇤 with t-h-l-s on a standard Korean keyboard.

With Korean 2-beolsik input active, those keys enter ㅅ, ㅗ, ㅣ, ㄴ; the input method combines them into 쇤. On a phone, switch to Korean and tap those components in order; mobile layouts vary.

What does 쇤 mean by itself?

Context decides what 쇤 means.

Hangul is the writing system used for Korean. 쇤 is one block made from initial consonant ㅅ, vowel ㅚ, and final consonant ㄴ. Hangul was devised in 1443; its explanatory text, 훈민정음 해례, was published in 1446, describing how consonant and vowel letters form syllable blocks.

쇤 can be the past modifier of 쇠다, a Korean verb for celebrating or observing a holiday or birthday: 설을 쇤 사람 means “someone who celebrated Lunar New Year.” In 쇤네, it is a contraction of 소인네, an old self-lowering way to refer to oneself, roughly “your servant.” A literary example appears in 장수과전, a Korean story in the collection 기리총화 compiled around 1825; there, a servant uses 쇤네 for “my household.” A 2023 TV-variety exchange uses the old voice for a joke: one performer casts himself as his friend’s subordinate.