백수 (baeksu)

What it means

1. 1.

   Someone out of work and not currently studying — typically a graduate between things. Usually self-applied and lightly rueful rather than insulting.

   백조 ('white swan') is the jokey female version, a pun on 백수 with the same first syllable.

Literally: White hands.

Examples with translations

• 졸업하고 반년째 백수야.

  I've been out of work for six months since graduating.

• 백수라 시간은 많아.

  I'm unemployed, so time is the one thing I have.

Where it comes from

From 白手, 'empty-handed' — hands with nothing in them. The image is of having no work rather than of not doing manual labour.

Other forms

Romanised as:

baeksu