멘붕 (menbung)

What it means

1. 1.

   Going to pieces — the blank, reeling state after bad news, a disastrous exam or a file lost an hour before a deadline. Everyday and usually not clinical.

Literally: Mental collapse.

Examples with translations

• 시험 망쳐서 완전 멘붕이야.

  I bombed the exam and I'm in bits.

• 파일 날아가서 멘붕왔어.

  The file vanished and I completely lost it.

Where it comes from

English 'mental' plus 붕괴 ('collapse'). The related 멘탈 갑 is its opposite — someone unshakeable.

First attested: around 2011

Other forms

Romanised as:

menbung