Korean slang profile
니트
niteu
Youth outside study, work, and training
An English abbreviation for young people not in education, employment, or vocational training and not looking for work.
- Expanded form
- Not in Education, Employment or TrainingNot in Education, Employment or Training
- Other spellings
- NEET, 니트족
- Earliest source found
- 2004
- Documented trend period
- Not verified
This is the earliest source we have verified, not the date the term was coined.
01Examples, with English translations
- Example by Julimmal
청년 지원 정책을 다루는 글에서 니트라는 용어를 접했다.
I encountered 니트 in an article about youth-support policy.
02Documented history
- 2004The National Institute of Korean Language’s 2004 new-word collection lists the headword “니트” and its definition.[1]
03Origin & word formation
Alongside NEET’s expanded form, the collection describes young people who are neither students nor workers and who do not undertake training or job seeking. Who first used it and when have not been verified.
Evidence for the origin explanationHigh
The headword, definition, and source-language spelling in the 2004 collection were compared. The original older articles re-quoted there were not directly opened, so their dates were not used for firstSeen. The first coinage and spread remain unverified. The collection’s 니트족 entry describes the same category. The label alone should not be used to judge an individual’s circumstances or motivation.
04Sources
Original titles and links are preserved. An English translation does not replace the original source.
- 2004년 신어 (국립국어원)Published 2004Original source checked Nov 14, 2026