ssak

Ssak, written in Hangul as 싹, is a native Korean noun meaning sprout, shoot, or bud. Its primary sense refers to the early growth of a plant emerging from a seed or a dormant bud. In horticulture and everyday speech, 싹 denotes the initial stage of growth, such as the first shoots that appear in spring or after pruning. It is commonly used with verbs like 나다 (to appear) and 트다 (to sprout), forming phrases such as 싹이 나다 and 싹이 트다.

Beyond its literal botanical meaning, 싹 appears in idiomatic usage to convey beginnings, renewal, or rapid onset. A related common compound is 새싹, meaning “new shoot,” which widely denotes fresh growth or the arrival of new life, ideas, or opportunity in a metaphorical sense.

In written and spoken Korean, 싹 is a simple, monosyllabic word typically written in Hangul. When transliterated into the Latin alphabet under the Revised Romanization system, it is rendered as ssak. The term is not a proper noun and does not refer to a specific organization or title; it functions primarily as vocabulary describing plant growth and related expressions.