köken: First element dab related to دبیر (dabīr /dabir) (whence دبیرستان (dabīristān /dabirestân, “highschool”)), دیباچه (dībāča /dibâče, “preface of a book”), دیباه (dībāh /dibâh, “a kind of silk”) and دیوان (dēwān /divân). See Middle Persian 𐭣𐭯𐭩𐭥𐭥 (dibīr) for more. Compare Northern Kurdish dibistan. By folk etymology, ادب (adab) + ـستان (-istān /-estân).
köken: Sino-Korean word from 國民學校, from 國民 (“citizen”) + 學校 (“school”), an orthographic borrowing from Japanese 国民学校(こくみんがっこう) (kokumin gakkō), which was used for "elementary school" between 1941 and 1947. It was replaced with 초등학교(初等學校) (chodeunghakgyo) in 1996 in order to eliminate Japanese linguistic influence, but some older speakers continue to prefer this term.