[KS] nodaji

[Johanna Kuhn-Osius]

Dear JooBai Lee and list, 

According to "ddeuddo moreugo jaju sseuneun urimal 500gaji" (¶æµµ ¸ð¸£°í ÀÚÁÖ ¾²´Â ¿ì¸®¸» 500°¡Áö) by Park Suk Hee, "nodaji" is indeed derived from "no touch."  According to that author the word orginated when Western mine owners in Korea told Korean mine workers "no touch" about the gold.  The Korean workers than came to think of "nodaji" as signifying gold, eventually resulting in the current meaning.    
As far as I know, this explaination of the origin of the word is widely accepted in Korea.  
If you are interested I can provide the bibliographic information book, which also contains explanations for many other interesting Korean words, although the author is not a linguist.  

regards, 

Johanna Kuhn-Osius