衣服 and 衣饰 both mean "clothing"; but are they truly synonymous or is the use of each term confined to its own specific context?
Or is it simply a difference between colloquial and formal speech or between the spoken the written language?
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Is this about Mandarin or Taiwanese or Cantonese? Can you re-tag accordingly? Thank you!– AlenannoDec 21, 2011 at 21:52
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@Alenanno - It's about Mandarin (tag added).– BjornDec 21, 2011 at 21:55
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My nick is Alenanno, just one "na" by the way. :D And thank you again!– AlenannoDec 21, 2011 at 21:56
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2 Answers
The former refers to clothes in general, while the latter refers to clothing ornaments/decorations (such as embroidery, patterns, etc).
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Do you have a source for this? The context in which I encountered the word strongly implied the meaning of "clothes" and the online dictionaries I checked also don't support your answer.– BjornDec 22, 2011 at 6:57
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Pinning down a source would be tricky. You'll have to look at the context that it is used online and in publications. 衣饰 is probably closer to "fashion" than clothing in general. The word is made up of 2 characters, 衣 ("clothes/to clothe") and 饰, generally "decoration/to adorn/to dress up/to impersonate (as in to play a role"). On a side note 服饰 means "clothing/apparel." Take a look at this article: women.sohu.com/20080501/n255968988.shtml– KrazerDec 22, 2011 at 13:16
Krazer has provided a good answer.
You could think of 饰 in the way it comes in 饰品, which means "jewelry" or "accessories". In that sense, 衣饰 is ornaments of textile, and 衣服 just clothes.
answered Dec 22, 2011 at 22:26
