Why the Word Every K-Pop Fan Knows Is Actually About a Lot More Than Romance If you've watched K-pop fan cams or spent any time in K-drama comment sections, you've almost certainly seen this: fans screaming "Oppa (oh-pa)!" at a male idol during a fan meet. The female lead in a drama calling the male lead "oppa" in a voice that's equal parts shy and affectionate. And somewhere along the way, most foreign fans pick up the same conclusion — "oppa must mean boyfriend, or a guy I like, or something romantic." It doesn't. Oppa's original meaning is roughly "an older brother from a female speaker's perspective" — specifically, the word a younger female uses to address an older male sibling. But that's not the whole story either. In actual Korean, oppa carries a much wider sense of relationship than a simple family term. So why do fans say it to idols? Why do couples use it? Packed into one syllable are Korean honorific cultur...