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贴身 (tiē shēn) — (of clothing) worn next to the skin; close-fitting; (of a servant or accessory) personal, closely attending

Definition

贴身 literally means 'against the body' — used for close-fitting clothes (贴身衣物) and figuratively for things close at hand or personally attended (贴身秘书).

adjective
(of clothing) worn next to the skinclose-fitting(of a servant or accessory) personalclosely attending

Examples

  • 贴身，。
    Zhè jiàn yī fu shì tiē shēn de, chuān zhuó hěn shū fu.
    This piece of clothing is worn next to the skin and is very comfortable to wear.
  • 贴身，。
    Tā shì tā duō nián de tiē shēn mì shū, zhī dào tā de suǒ yǒu xí guàn.
    She has been his personal secretary for many years and knows all his habits.
  • ，贴身。
    Zhè ge shǒu jī tào wǒ měi tiān yòng, yǐ jīng chéng le wǒ de tiē shēn wù pǐn.
    I use this phone case every day; it has become a close personal item of mine.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

贴tiēcling
身shēnbody

贴 means to cling, and 身 is the body, so the word describes something close to the body.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 貼; 贴 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèishell
Sound part声符shēngfú
占
占zhàn貼tiē
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 貼 pairs 貝, a shell, with 占 as a sound part; the simplified 贴 is a later shorthand.

Open 贴 →

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

The shape of 身 comes from a drawing of a pregnant woman.

Open 身 →
Appears in
Clothing

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