고구마 (goguma)

What it means

1. 1.

   Something maddeningly stuck: a plot where nobody says what they obviously should, a colleague who will not come to the point, a process that goes nowhere.

Literally: Sweet potato.

Examples with translations

• 이 드라마 완전 고구마야.

  This drama is unbearably frustrating.

• 고구마 백 개 먹은 느낌이야.

  It's like swallowing a hundred dry sweet potatoes.

Where it comes from

A dry sweet potato eaten without a drink sticks in the throat — the physical sensation of the thing that will not go down. 사이다 is what you reach for to clear it, which is exactly why it is the opposite term.

Other forms

Romanised as:

goguma