[Korean Culture & Language] 'Eating' heat, blame, and bribe

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As I covered in my last article, Koreans like to eat. In fact, they even “eat” age, heat, blame, and bribe! ‘먹다’ means to ‘eat’ in Korean, and they say 더위(heat)를 먹다, 욕(blame)을 먹다, and 뇌물(bribe)을 먹다.

What does it mean to “eat age” in Korean? 

“나이를 먹다” means “to age”. 

Below is a popular meme that reads, “The scariest thing about eating age is that I can’t say ‘Oh, I’m too young to know that’ anymore”. Did you get it? It basically means that the writer is scared of getting old, because he can’t just say “Oh, I didn’t know that” when he makes a mistake. He has to be more responsible for what he does.

What about “eating heat”? “더위,” means “heat,” and “먹다” means “to eat”.

“더위를 먹다” means “to get heat exhaustion”. When you think about it, it makes sense that someone would get exhaustion from ‘taking in’ too much heat.
To use it in a sentence:
“나 더위 먹은 것 같아” = “I think I have a heat exhaustion”

By now, you might have realized that ‘먹다’ can be used to mean ‘to get’ or ‘to have’.
Can you guess what “욕을 먹다” means, given that “욕” means “blame”?
It means “to be blamed”
Ex) “너 때문에 욕 먹었잖아” = “I got blamed for what you did”

Lastly, you can also “eat” bribes.
뇌물을 먹다 means to be bribed.
You can jokingly ask your friend, “얘한테 뇌물 먹였니? (Did you bribe him/her?),” when someone compliments your friend on things you don’t necessarily agree with.