Re: Clothing terminology

H.S.Teoh wrote:

> I'm entering the lexicon entries for Ebisédi clothing, and I'm stuck with
> what word to use in the English glosses. Since I'm obviously ignorant of
> the intricacies of habilatory[*] terms, I'm asking fellow list-members to
> help. What is the best English term(s) that can be used to describe the
> following items?
Con-clothing is fun..........There may be no recourse but to describe these
things in full-- or consider making an illustrated dictionary!!

> 1) A main garment made of two halves, each in the shape of a half-torso,
>    an arm and a leg. Some kind of "body suit", I suppose, but is there a
>    better term for this?
Does it come apart completely, into the 2 halves? How odd, to have e.g.
one's left side completely clothed, the right side uncovered....:-)))  OTOH,
if it just opens down the front, it sounds like a "jump suit" (prisoners
wear them, and IIRC Churchill favored one during WW2 and had an amusing name
for it I think) or indeed a kind of "body suit".  (And from what I recall of
the Ebisedian world-view, I'm surprised it doesn't come in _3_ parts
;-)))) ) I think I've seen motocycle racing suits (maybe wet-suits too?)
where the shirt part and the pants are joined together with a zipper.

>
> 2) Something draped around the shoulders (or attached to the main garment
>    at the shoulders), with a triangular flap(?) covering the chest, the
>    tip of which joins with article #3 at the waistline.
>
To my mind, it sounds vaguely Elizabethan.  The "farthingale"?? Is it purely
decorative?

> 3) Something worn around the waist, with a triangular (sometimes
>    hexagonal) flap(?) that hangs over the groin area, optionally with a
>    matching flap(?) in the back. Sorta like a fancy sash, perhaps? Or a
>    loin-cloth?
IIRC, Native Americans and some Indonesian tribal peoples wore something
like that, and we call it a loin cloth.  I don't know if they wore anything
underneath to cover/protect/keep warm the naughty bits.  "Loin cloth" can
also be conceived as going around the waist but also going between the legs
and up the rear-- like the Japanese fundoshi??

Sounds like it would be more decorative (i.e. they wear somthing under it)
than functional (concealment)-- any stray breeze could un-conceal one and
cause  embarrassment (assuming [a] Ebisedians have naughty bits and [b] they
are modest people who don't like to expose themselves unnecessarily).

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