Korean slang profile
빌런
villain
A villain or a troublesome person
A villain in a movie or comic. It is also used jokingly for someone whose behavior causes trouble for others.
- Expanded form
- villainA villain or a troublesome person
- Other spellings
- —
- Earliest source found
- Feb 21, 2017
- Documented trend period
- Around 2017~
This is the earliest source we have verified, not the date the term was coined.
01Examples, with English translations
- Example by Julimmal
회의 빌런이 또 늦게 왔어.
The person who always disrupts our meetings showed up late again.
- Quoted from a source
빌런은 영어단어로 ‘악당’을 뜻한다.[1]
빌런 is an English word meaning ‘villain’.
English translation by Julimmal.
02Documented history
- February 2017A special article published in Daum News introduced ‘빌런 (villain)’ as an Internet slang referring to a person who causes harm to those around him or her in the community.[1]
03Origin & word formation
From the English “villain.” The article cautiously says this usage reportedly began in DC Inside's Classic Games gallery and may have borrowed the fictional-villain sense from the neighboring Hero gallery. The explanation is tentative rather than established.
Evidence for the origin explanationMedium
The proposed community origin is qualified in the article with wording such as “reportedly” and “seems.” It is not a directly verified fact.
04Sources
Original titles and links are preserved. An English translation does not replace the original source.
- <디테일추적>인터넷 세상의 '빌런(villain)'들 (조선일보(다음 뉴스 전재))Published Feb 21, 2017Original source checked Nov 5, 2026