Nuance Dictionary / Social Situations
시시콜콜 si-si-kol-kol
The compulsive, minute-by-minute relaying of petty personal details and low-stakes gossip that nobody asked for.
What does 시시콜콜 mean?
시시콜콜 (si-si-kol-kol) means: The compulsive, minute-by-minute relaying of petty personal details and low-stakes gossip that nobody asked for.
Textbooks love to translate 시시콜콜 as 'detailed' or 'thorough,' missing the delicious, slightly judgmental meat of the word. When natives use it, there's almost always a raised eyebrow; it describes the friend who tells you not just that Min-su broke up with his girlfriend, but what they fought about, who texted first, and what emoji she used. It signals conversational clutter — information that is painfully trivial yet aggressively shared.
Other sides of 시시콜콜
◆ Interrogative nagging — When a parent interrogates you about every single person you spoke to, or a micro-managing boss demands to know why every minute of your workday was spent a certain way, natives drop 시시콜콜. It’s not just asking questions; it’s the suffocating insistence on absolute transparency where none is warranted. Learners usually confuse it with simple curiosity, missing the heavy undertone of parental or institutional overreach that makes the receiver want to scream.
How it's actually used
- 남의 연애사에 왜 그렇게 시시콜콜 캐물어?
nam-ui yeon-ae-sa-e wae geureoh-ge si-si-kol-kol kae-mur-eo?
Why are you digging so deep into other people's dating lives with all these tiny details?
💡 Shows how the word attaches to intrusive questioning about useless trivia. - 우리 팀장은 사생활까지 시시콜콜 다 알려고 해서 피곤해.
u-ri tim-jang-eun sa-saenghwal-kka-ji si-si-kol-kol da al-ryeo-go hae-seo pi-gon-hae.
My team leader is exhausting because he tries to know every single trivial detail of our private lives.
💡 Captures the workplace annoyance of an over-involved boss. - 시시콜콜한 이야기 좀 그만해, 궁금하지도 않아.
si-si-kol-kol-han i-yagi jom geu-man-hae, gung-geum-ha-ji-do an-ha.
Stop rambling on about all these petty little details, I don't even care.
💡 Demonstrates the outright dismissal of unnecessary over-sharing.
Related words in Social Situations
시작이 반이다 Sijagi banida싱겁다 sing-geop-da소 뒷걸음질 치다 쥐 잡기 So dwit-georeumjil chida jwi japgi속이 터지다 Sok-i teo-ji-da손에 쥐다 son-e jwida