Việt phục

Vietnamese

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 越服, composed of 越 (“Vietnamese”) and 服 (“clothes”).

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [viət̚˧˨ʔ fʊwk͡p̚˧˨ʔ]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [viək̚˨˩ʔ fʊwk͡p̚˨˩ʔ]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [viək̚˨˩˨ fʊwk͡p̚˨˩˨] ~ [jiək̚˨˩˨ fʊwk͡p̚˨˩˨]

Noun

Việt phục

(neologism, uncommon) Vietnamese "traditional clothings"

Usage notes

This is a neologism coined recently to refer to "Vietnamese traditional clothings", modelled after terms from other Sinosphere languages like Chinese 漢服／汉服 (hànfú), Korean 한복(韓服) (hanbok), Japanese 和服 (wafuku). Historically, it was never in use in actual Vietnamese texts prior to, during, and for some time after, the colonial period.

Its usage is still limited to mostly Sinologist circles.

During the colonial period, Vietnamese clothings were simply expressed with phrases like "cách phục sức/ăn mặc của ta (“our style of dressing”)" (Việt Nam phong tục, 1915), "quần áo ta (“our clothings”)" (Cành hoa điểm tuyết, 1921), "đồ An Nam (“Annamese clothes”)" (Chúa tàu Kim Quy, 1923). Slightly later, the term quốc phục started to be used to refer to traditional clothings (Số đỏ, 1938; Đoạn tình, 1940).

đồ ta (attested in an article in 1935, pg. 3, quốc phục is also attested here) is the modern term in actual colloquial usage for Vietnamese-styled clothings.