ANSWER: Properly, in Korea, 馬脚 (마각) means “horse’s (馬) leg (脚),” however in China, it means “a horse’s foot” or “hoof,” although there appears to be some confusion since 脚 (각) can imply each “leg” and “foot” in sure areas of China.
I’ve learn, nonetheless, that in Mandarin Chinese language, 脚 (각) is often used to imply “foot” or “ft,” reminiscent of in 小脚 (소각), which accurately means “small (小) ft (脚),” and 大脚 (대각), which accurately means “huge (大) ft (脚).” In China, the phrase 小脚 (소각) refers to “sure ft,” ft which have been deformed by the outdated Chinese language observe of binding girls’s ft to make them look smaller. Girls with small ft have been thought of to be extra lovely in historic China. And the phrase 大脚 (대각) refers to “naturally shaped ft,” which apparently have been thought of to be ugly for a lady.
There appears to be two Chinese language phrases for “foot-binding.” One is 裹脚 (과각) and the opposite is 纏足 (전족) and each of them actually imply “to wrap or bundle (裹/纏) ft (脚/足).” The Chinese language character 足 (족) also can imply “foot” and is the character that Koreans want to make use of for “foot.” So, Koreans often use the Sino-Korean phrase 전족 (纏足) to check with “foot-binding.”
Anyway, the idiom 마각을 드러내다 actually means “to point out or expose “horse ft” or “a horse foot” however is used to imply “to disclose one’s true character,” seemingly in a adverse means. So, 마각 (馬脚) can imply both “horse ft” or “one’s true character.”
I’ve learn that the expression 마각을 드러내다 comes from a narrative in regards to the spouse of the founding father of China’s Ming Dynasty. Her household identify was supposedly 馬 (마), which can also be the character used to imply “horse.” Ms. Ma supposedly had “huge ft” (大脚), which means that her ft had not been sure and deformed when she was a baby. Ms. Ma was ashamed of her unbound ft as a result of solely ugly girls had unbound ft in historic China. Due to this fact, Ms. Ma all the time tried disguise her “huge ft,” most likely by sporting lengthy robes. Nonetheless, at some point whereas getting out of a carriage, Ms. Ma’s “huge ft” have been uncovered, revealing her secret or “true character” to the general public, which supposedly induced folks to start out referring to “unbound ft” as 馬脚 (마각).
Nonetheless, the story doesn’t make sense to me. First, why would the founding father of the Ming Dynasty marry a girl with “huge ft”? Second, ft which have been deformed by binding look extra like “horse ft” than ft which can be naturally shaped. So, I believe that Ms. Ma most likely had sure ft, not unbound ft, and that on that day she forgot to placed on her fancy footwear earlier than getting out of her carriage, thereby exposing her deformed “horse ft” to the general public.
