焦げ付く

• Reading: こげつく
• Romaji: kogetsuku
• Kanji breakdown: 焦 (sho/ko) — to scorch, to burn, to char; 付 (fu/tsu) — to attach, to stick, to adhere
• Pronunciation: /ko.ɡe.tsɯ.kɯ/

Meaning

To become a bad debt; for a loan or receivable to go unrecoverable; (literally) to burn and stick to a surface.

A Group 1 (godan) verb with two distinct meanings. In finance, it describes a receivable or loan that cannot be collected — effectively written off as an unrecoverable loss. The literal meaning is for food to burn and adhere to a pan. The financial usage is a vivid metaphor: money lent that has been consumed and left as a useless residue, like charred food stuck to the bottom of a pan.

Examples

1. 取引先が倒産し、売掛金が焦げ付いてしまった。 Our business partner went bankrupt, and the accounts receivable became a bad debt.
2. 貸し付けた資金が焦げ付くリスクを十分に評価する必要がある。 It is necessary to thoroughly evaluate the risk of loaned funds becoming unrecoverable.
3. 不良債権が焦げ付いた結果、銀行は多額の損失を計上せざるを得なかった。 As a result of the non-performing loans going bad, the bank had no choice but to record massive losses.

Usage Guide

Context: banking, credit, accounts receivable, finance

Tone: serious

Origin & History

Compound verb from 焦げる (kogeru, to burn/scorch) and 付く (tsuku, to stick/adhere). The image is of something irremovably burned and stuck — a vivid metaphor for debt that has become impossible to recover.

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: Business professionals

Social background: Finance/Banking