#68. 핑거프린세스 -- Can't you do it yourself?

I will admit that most of my time on the Korean internet is actually spent on mostly male-dominated sites. I'm not really sure why; I just find the blunt humour that is characteristic of the male-dominated websites a lot funnier than the female-dominated ones. As a result, a large number of slang that I have covered in this blog are used more frequently by men than women (Also, many women's websites are login only, where you are only accepted as a user if you can prove that you're female, so accessibility is sometimes an issue.)

That doesn't mean that I don't spend any time on the female-dominated websites. And these websites often have their own slang.

"핑거프린세스" is one of such slang, used almost exclusively by women. This word is broken up into two parts like many Korean slang, as "핑거" and "프린세스." Both words are English; "핑거" is "finger," and "프린세스" is "princess."

A: 나 내일 남자친구랑 롯데월드에 놀러가는데, 날씨가 좋을까? (I'm going to Lotte World with my boyfriend, do you think it will be nice tomorrow?)
B: 좋겠네. 잘 놀고 와! (You must be excitd, have fun!)
A: 날씨가 좋아야 잘 놀텐데. 너 내일 날씨 어떤지 알아? (I can't have fun if it's not nice out. Do you know the weather tomorrow?)
B: (핸드폰에 검색후) 내일 날씨 좋다네.  (Searching on phone Apparently it will be nice tomorrow.)
A: 다행이다. 근데 롯데월드에 지하철타고갈건데 혹시 몇호선을 타야 가는지 알아? (That's good. By the way, I'm going there by subway. Do you know what line goes there?)
B: 잘 모르겠는데. (I'm not sure.)
A: 나 지하철 자주 안타서 걱정되는데, 혹시 좀 알아봐줄수있어? (I'm really nervous because I don't take subways often. Do you think you could find out the directions for me?)
B: 야, 핑거프린세스짓 그만하고 니가 직접 검색해봐. (Hey, stop being a finger princess and look it up yourself.)

Knowing the meaning of each part, and a context in which this word might be used, can you guess what it means?

I sometimes link my 핑프 friends to this website.

"핑거프린세스," "핑프" for short, means that the person in question is such a princess in the fingers that they refuse to search the internet for themselves. These are the people who ask very straightforward questions (usually online) whose answers can be found out by a very quick Google search.

Here are some more examples of how to use this word in context:

The girl from the above example might see her boyfriend the next day on her way to Lotte World, and tell him:

"나 어제 핑프라고 욕먹었어." (Yesterday, I was insulted to be a 핑프).

Or, on an internet forum, someone might see this word for the first time, and make a post to ask about its meaning:

Netizen A: "핑프가 뭐에요?" (What dose 핑프 mean?)
Netizen B: "너요." (That would be you.)

Here, "너요" is a very sarcastic reply, because the first half of this short sentence "너" is an informal denotation of "you," while the second half "요" is formal honorifics. By writing out a sentence in informal speech except the very end, you can give off a very sarcastic vibe, like in the above example. Many websites require its users to use honorifics at all times, so Netizen B is trying to get away with as much non-honorifics as possible, managing to be sarcastic and disrespectful at the same time!

"핑프" is definitely an internet slang known to only the young people of Korea. It came into use not too long ago, I would estimate it to be maybe 3-5 years old. It is fairly popular among the young women, although it is, of course, designed to insult. It seems that some men try to use this as well by calling their male friends "핑거프린스 (finger prince)" but it hasn't caught on so much.