꼰대 (kkondae)

What it means

1. 1.

   An older person who lectures juniors about how things were done in their day and expects deference for their age alone.

2. 2.

   Age is not strictly required: 젊은 꼰대, the 'young kkondae', is a recognised figure — someone two years senior behaving exactly the same way.

Examples with translations

• 우리 부장님 완전 꼰대야.

  Our department head is such a dinosaur.

• 나 꼰대 되기 싫어.

  I really don't want to turn into one of those people.

Where it comes from

Schoolboy slang for a teacher or a father from the 1960s, revived around 2015 as a general term in the public argument about workplace hierarchy. One derivation traces it to French comte via Japanese; it is unverified and probably folk etymology.

Other forms

Romanised as:

kkondae