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衣裳 (yī shang) — clothes (colloquial)

Definition

衣裳 is a colloquial, slightly old-fashioned word for clothes — more literary than 衣服 but less formal than 服装 or 服饰. Used mostly in everyday speech or writing for a warm, familiar tone.

noun
clothes (colloquial)
Measure word · 件

Examples

  • 衣裳。
    Tā chuān le yí jiàn piào liang de yī shang.
    She is wearing a beautiful piece of clothing.
  • 衣裳。
    Zhè xiē yī shang hěn pián yi.
    These clothes are very cheap.
  • 衣裳。
    Wǒ mǎi le sān jiàn yī shang.
    I bought three pieces of clothing.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

衣yīclothes
裳shanggarment

衣 and 裳 both refer to clothing, together giving the colloquial sense of clothes.

Characters in this word

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 →

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
衣衣yīclothing
Sound part声符shēngfú
尚
尚shàng裳cháng
Same sound today

裳 combines 衣, which gives the meaning “clothing”, with 尚, which gives the sound shàng.

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Clothing

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