"전자레인지"

Translation: Microwave

[OKAMOTO_Yusuke]

"microwave oven" would be accepted. Posted on Nov. 24, 2017.

[wintertriangles]

Microwave as in the wave particles and microwave as in the oven are used as the same word. No one says microwave oven these days.

[Neil431711]

Wintertriangles, I say microwave oven when I want to be sure that I am not misunderstood about what I am talking about; I guess I am nobody?

[shayisnthere]

I can't think of a ton of situations in which the average person would be misunderstood here, but I'm sure it happens. Having the distinction isn't bad, it's just odd.

[Winston298006]

The same in English, but not in Korean, so a distinction is appropriate.

[JanThanDan]

what is the actual english word they mean by this

[Meuwon]

Jeonja range? Idk

[GiovanniSantucci]

Just guessing here, but if 전 means "before", then it could be similar to "infra" in this case. So if you're right about "range" then it could be "the range (of wavelengths) before 자"--whatever 자 is. (Probably not even a Sino-Korean origin for "red" because that would make the word mean "infrared", but microwaves are even further outside of the visible spectrum than infrared.)

My guess is wrong. According to Wiktionary, it comes from 전자 meaning electron which is a loan word from Chinese, which first got it as a loan word from Japanese, which created it from Middle Chinese words meaning lightning particle.