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成衣 (chéng yī) — ready-made clothing, off-the-rack garments; tailoring, the garment trade

Definition

成衣 (chéngyī) means 'ready-made / off-the-rack clothing' — factory-produced garments sold in standard sizes, as opposed to custom-tailored (定制) pieces.

noun
ready-made clothingoff-the-rack garmentstailoringthe garment trade
Measure word · 件

Examples

  • 成衣，。
    Zhè jiā gōng sī de chéng yī zhì liàng hěn hǎo, jià gé yě hé lǐ.
    The ready-made clothes from this company are good quality and reasonably priced.
  • 成衣，。
    Tā xué xí chéng yī shè jì, xī wàng yǐ hòu néng kāi yì jiā fú zhuāng diàn.
    He studies tailoring design, hoping to open a clothing store later.
  • ，成衣。
    Suí zhe shēng huó shuǐ píng de tí gāo, rén men duì chéng yī de xū qiú yuè lái yuè dà.
    As living standards rise, people's demand for ready-made clothing grows.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

成chéngfinished
衣yīclothes

成 (finished) and 衣 (clothes) mean clothing already made.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
戊戊wù
Sound part声符shēngfú
丁
丁dīng成chéng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

成 puts 戊, a weapon, beside 丁, which gives the sound. The weapon part relates to protection, as in the old sense of city walls.

Open 成 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 衣 comes from an outline of the chest and upper clothing.

Open 衣 →
Appears in
Clothing

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