# 오글오글



## 조금만

After a long break, I'm back to watching TV dramas, which also means that I'm back here asking about colloquialisms which defeat me and my dictionaries. 

A little girl is disappointed because her father has to go on an unexpected business trip and can't come to her birthday party. As she and her mother see him off on his trip, she makes a request  
아빠, 출장 가면 못 보는데 우리 오글오글 한번 해. 

To which the father agrees 

그래, 우리 오글오글 한번 하자. 

The child grins, hugs both parents and says, 
우리는 행복한 오글오글 가족이야. 

 Now I used to think I had 오글오글 sussed, as one of the few among the thousands of Korean semi-onomatapoeic doublets that actually has a close English equivalent, namely "wiggle-waggle".  But "going wiggle-waggle" is not something little girls normally ask Daddy to do in the English-speaking world, nor is a "wiggle-waggle family", happy or not, a known sociological phenomenon.  

So what does this expression mean here? If forced to guess, I'd for 'cuddle', so the first line would be "Daddy, since you're off on a trip and I won't be able to see you, how about a cuddle?", and her final remark would be the equivalent of "We're a happy, cuddly, family".   But that's is sheer guesswork on my part. I hereby request informed opinion...


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## Superhero1

Hello, Mr. 조금만.

There was a catch phrase in Korea '손발이 오그라들다(오글거리다)' which literally means 'something makes my fingers and toes shrink inward' and figuratively means 'to cringe about something[very embarrassed]', and on the internet, TV comic shows, or the TV dramas, I heard and was accustomed to this expression quite often in between 2009 and 2011. But I think I can't apply those translation to your examples, because I'm sure your suggestion is definitely correct according to the context.

In dictionary (and it is sometimes used in literature), we can find a word 오글대다 which means 'insects, animals or people move and gather around in a small area in a quite shambolic way' and to expand its meaning, the family members come closer to cuddle in a very short distance apart.


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## ddungbo

I have no idea of what they are doing and especailly what the girl mean by saying 'let's do 오글오글'.

According to Naver Dictionary,

오글거리다.

동사
1. 주체의 말이나 행동 혹은 어떠한 사물이나 사건이 매우 느끼하여 손발이 *오그라들고* 부들부들 떨릴 것 같다.
2. 주체의 말이나 행동 혹은 특정 사물이나 사건이 충격적일 정도로 낯간지럽다.
3. 주체의 말이나 행동, 특정 사물이나 사건이 지나치다 싶을 정도로 극적이거나 진지하다.

To my mind, this verb always associates with a person's hands and feet, which I believe is where its meaning came from. The word in bold, sticking out in #1 is the verb I think it is derived from. 오그라들다(shrink/shrivel/wiggle) is about the action it describes, while 오글거리다 is the feeling you get from something, so displeasing that it makes you as if your hands/feet 오그라들다. It always conjours up in my mind this image of a person's hands or feet contracting inwards. Fear, or any kind of intense emotion might induce one to have this feeling, but the usual, typical sense of the verb in which people are using the word is very specific to several occassion, I think: to a person who is 느끼한, or a situation where you feel 민망한 or 창피한. 
I'm only familiar with the usage explained in #1,2 above, and personally, I would go so far as to say the subject of this verb is restricted only to 손, 발, but as said, it's about a person's feeling as opposed to the action itself, so the subject can be a person, too, I guess. 


The second, different meaning of the verb, as Superhero1 mentioned, might be on the mark. It's one of the most disgusting image that I get from this meaning of 오글거리다(오글대다), which is insects swarming in a small area. The family in the drama might mirror some sort of similar visual effect. 


Ps. what does 'wiggle-waggle' mean?


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## 조금만

Thank you both for such splendidly informative replies!

As for the meaning of wiggle-waggle... Well, I'd say "to go wiggle-waggle" was one colloquial way of translating 오그라들다 in the "wiggle" sense.

But to quote salient parts of the OED entry:

[http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/228970; accessed 11 July 2012]

"v. Reduplicated form combining wiggle v. waggle v. emphasizing the alternation of movement. [...] 
(fig.) vacillating [...] 
wiggle-waggle n. the act of ‘wiggle-waggling’; also, a children's game in which the players waggle their thumbs at a word of command;"

where the latter item tallies interestingly with the association of the Korean verb with the movement of fingers and/or toes


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## reineblanc

I did some searching on this subject, and it seems that '오글오글' has a special, unique meaning in the drama.  
"한준과 헤어지기 전 딸 미소는 해맑은 미소를 드러내며 오랜만에 ‘오글오글’을 하자고 말했다. 오글오글’은 순영, 한준, 미소가 서로 포옹하며 사랑을 듬뿍 드러내는 것으로, 이들 가족의 애정표현인 터." (http://reviewstar.hankooki.com/Article/ArticleView.php?WEB_GSNO=10050225)
- Before seeing Hanjoon off, his daughter, Miso, smiling brightly, suggests that they all should do the 오글오글. For this family, 오글오글 is a form of expressing their affection, and consists of hugging one another and showing their love.


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## 조금만

Thanks so much for that. From now on, as I tune in for my daily fix of this utterly preposterous plot, I shall hear in my head the question that writer so poignantly closes with

과연 이 가족은 앞으로도 계속 ‘오글오글’ 할 수 있을까? 

Answer: for the next 60 episodes or so, probably not. But once we get past the 100 mark, it will be repentance, tears, reconciliation, and above all wiggle-waggle into the sunset.


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