진지: The Honorific Word for 밥 (Meal)

Learners usually meet Korean honorification as something that happens to verbs — the -(으)시- infix, the suppletive 드시다 and 뵙다. But respect in Korean soaks into the nouns too. A respected person's meal is not 밥 but 진지; their name is not 이름 but 성함; their age is not 나이 but 연세. This page teaches 진지, the honorific word for a meal, and uses it as the doorway into a whole layer of the language most textbooks barely mention: honorific nouns, and the way they pull the rest of the sentence up with them.

진지: an elder's meal

진지 is the honorific noun for 밥 (cooked rice; by extension, a meal) or 식사 (a meal). You use it when speaking of the eating of a respected elder — a grandparent, a great-aunt, a very senior guest. It appears constantly in one of the warmest everyday questions in Korean: 진지 드셨어요? — "Have you eaten?", the Korean equivalent of asking after someone's wellbeing.

That greeting is worth pausing on. "Have you eaten?" — casual 밥 먹었어요?, honorific 진지 드셨어요? — is one of the most common ways Koreans greet each other and show they care, a habit rooted in generations for whom a full meal could not be taken for granted. Asked of a grandparent, it must climb to 진지 드셨어요?: the same warmth, lifted to the register the elder is owed. And because 진지 is inherently an honorific noun, it pairs with 잡수시다 especially naturally — 진지 잡수셨어요? is the most deferential form of the question.

An honorific noun triggers an honorific verb

Here is the mechanism English speakers most often miss. Honorific nouns do not sit alone — they pull the verb up with them. Raise the noun to 진지 and the eating verb must rise to 드시다 / 잡수시다 too. Leaving a plain verb under a raised noun — 진지 먹어요 — jars a native ear, because you have honored the meal and then dropped the person eating it. The whole clause has to agree on one level: honored subject (께서), honored noun (진지), honored verb (잡수시다).

Because setting out a meal for an elder is a favor done upward, it takes the humble benefactive -아/어 드리다: 차려 드리다.

The bigger picture: a parallel vocabulary of respect

진지 is one entry in a small but essential set of nouns that have separate honorific forms. English has nothing like this — "meal," "name," and "age" don't change shape depending on whose they are. In Korean, referring to a superior's most basic possessions and attributes means reaching for a different word.

These belong together: to ask an elder's name and age respectfully you say 성함 (see 성함) and 연세 (see 연세) — never the plain 이름 and 나이.

댁 and 생신: two you'll meet constantly

Two other members of the set come up all the time. 댁 is a superior's home — and, by extension, a gentle way to refer to the household or the person themselves. 생신 is an elder's birthday: what you celebrate for a grandparent is their 생신, never their 생일.

Register: 진지 vs 식사 vs 밥

진지 is not the everyday polite word — it is the traditional, elder-facing one. It is a native Korean honorific with a formal, slightly old-fashioned flavor, and today it is reserved chiefly for the elderly and for moments of clear deference. For ordinary polite speech — a colleague, a customer, anyone middle-aged rather than elderly — the neutral-polite word is the Sino-Korean 식사, as in 식사하셨어요? ("Have you eaten?").

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: The honorific noun 진지 with the plain verb 먹다. Half a raised clause reads worse than none — lift the verb too.

Mistake 2: Using 진지 for your OWN meal. Honorific nouns describe others. Your meal is just 밥.

Mistake 3: 진지 for a peer's meal. To a colleague or a customer, 진지 sounds old-fashioned and overdone. The neutral-polite word is 식사.

Mistake 4: Plain 나이 / 이름 for a respected elder. The set-agreement logic extends past 진지 — a superior's age and name take the honorific nouns too.

Key Takeaways

• 진지 is the honorific noun for 밥 / 식사, used for the meal of a respected elder.
• Korean honorification lives in nouns as well as verbs: 진지 (meal), 성함 (name), 연세 (age), 댁 (home), 생신 (birthday).
• An honorific noun triggers an honorific verb — 진지 pairs with 드시다/잡수시다, never plain 먹다; the whole clause agrees (께서 + 진지 + 잡수시다).
• Register ladder: 밥 (plain) → 식사 (neutral-polite) → 진지 (honorific, elder-facing).
• Never use 진지 for your own meal — that's just 밥.