BTS Confirm The Clever Meaning Behind The Title Of “BE” Track “Dis-Ease”
In BTS‘s live comeback broadcast for BE today, the members confirmed the clever meaning behind the title of track six: “Dis-Ease”.
From the moment Big Hit Entertainment released the track list for BE, fans were intrigued by one song in particular: “Dis-Ease”. The old-school hip hop track has been praised as one of the album’s highest points by critics today, but before it was released, everyone was talking about the title.
In Korean, the song is titled “Byeong“, which can mean either “sickness” or “bottle”. Given the English title, fans were pretty sure that the former meaning was the right one, but many were still left wondering why the group decided to split the word “disease” with a hyphen.
Everyone had their own theories, but only one was correct. In today’s live comeback broadcast, the BTS members confirmed the song title’s intended meaning. First, they revealed that J-Hope was the one who chose the title—fitting, since he composed and co-wrote the song. RM, Suga, and Jimin all worked on the lyrics with him.
As for the title itself, RM explained that “Dis-Ease” has two meanings. When the word is joined—”disease”—it means sickness, as most English speakers know. However, when separated with a hyphen, it can be taken to mean “unease”. The prefix “dis” is commonly used in English to create an opposite meaning, showing J-Hope has a truly impressive grasp of the language.
RM was equally impressed with his efforts, congratulating J-Hope during the broadcast for such a creative title choice. The group’s leader is known for his genius wordplay when he writes lyrics in Korean and English, so it was certainly high praise coming from him.
Meanwhile, V had his own funny thoughts about the title. Jokingly, he noted that “Dis-Ease” is like the word “hangry”—a portmanteau of “hungry” and “angry”. Long-time ARMYs will know exactly why V used this word to tease J-Hope…
Back in 2017, when BTS remade Seo Taiji and Boys‘s 1995 song “Come Back Home”, J-Hope wrote “Angry? Hungry? Yes, I’m hangry” into his verse!
