Ramyeon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Korean instant noodles typically prepared by boiling in water and seasoning with a flavor packet
2. A quick meal of Korean instant noodles cooked by adding hot water and flavorings to dried noodle blocks
3. Korean instant noodle soup made by combining dried noodles with hot water and the included seasoning mixture

Etymology: Korean "ramyeon" is a word that has travelled through three languages to describe a single dish. It was borrowed from Korean "라면", which in turn came from Japanese "ラーメン" (rāmen). The Japanese word traces back to the Mandarin "拉麵" or "拉面" (lāmiàn), literally "pulled noodles", a name that refers to the way the dough is stretched by hand into strands before cooking. The same Chinese root has produced several relatives in other languages. Lamian, the Chinese name itself, is one; laghman, a noodle dish in Central Asian cuisine, is another; and ramen, the English-language form of the Japanese word, is a fourth. Linguists call words like these doublets: forms that share an origin but reached a language by different routes and took on different shapes along the way.