Korean slang profile
호갱
hogaeng
A customer easy to overcharge
A customer seen as inexperienced or naive and therefore easy to take advantage of.
Caution: It is a belittling way to refer to someone.
- Expanded form
- 호구 + 고객A customer easy to overcharge
- Other spellings
- —
- Earliest source found
- 2013
- Documented trend period
- Around 2013~
This is the earliest source we have verified, not the date the term was coined.
01Examples, with English translations
- Example by Julimmal
모르고 샀다가 호갱 됐어.
I didn't know enough when I bought it and ended up getting ripped off.
- Quoted from a source
소위 '호갱(호구 + 고객)'이 되어 본 적이 있지만[1]
I have been what people call a 호갱: 호구, an easy mark, plus 고객, a customer.
English translation by Julimmal.
02Documented history
- Spring 2013A paper on new social-media language in the National Institute of Korean Language's New Korean Language Life lists 호갱님 as an example of a disparaging expression.[2]
- November 2014IT Donga explains 호갱 as 호구, an easy mark, plus 고객, customer, while discussing how to avoid being taken advantage of when buying a phone.[1]
03Origin & word formation
Combines 호구 with 고객, customer. A 2014 IT Donga article gives 호구+고객, and the spring 2013 issue of the National Institute of Korean Language's New Korean Language Life explains 호갱님 similarly. Who first used it has not been verified.
Evidence for the origin explanationHigh
Both a news article and a government publication explicitly explain the compound's structure. Who first used it is unknown.
04Sources
Original titles and links are preserved. An English translation does not replace the original source.
- 휴대폰 살 때 '호갱님' 되지 않으려면? (IT동아)Published Nov 21, 2014Original source checked Nov 5, 2026
- 누리소통망과 새말의 형성 — 새국어생활 제23권 제1호(2013년 봄) (국립국어원)Published 2013Original source checked Nov 5, 2026