裸

Phono-semantic compound:

衣 (옷 의) — semantic component, indicates clothing or garments.

果 (실과 과) — phonetic component, provides the sound luǒ / ra and implies something exposed, ripe, or bare (as fruit without its husk).

In Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字):

「裸，無衣也。从衣，果聲。」

“裸 means to be without garments; composed of 衣 and phonetic 果.”

Early forms: 𧝹 and 臝 were ancient graph variants; 裸 became the standardized form in clerical script.

Simplified forms 倮 and 躶 also occur but are rare.

Note: when 衣 encloses 果 completely (衣 over and under 果), it forms 裹 (쌀 과 ‘to wrap, cover’), whose meaning is nearly opposite — “to wrap” versus “to bare.”

裸體 (나체) — naked body

裸身 (나신) — bare body; nude figure

赤裸 (적라) — completely naked; utterly bare

裸露 (나로) — exposed, revealed, uncovered

裸出 (나출) — to appear uncovered, to bare oneself

Book of Rites (禮記 · 玉藻):

「男子不可以裸。」

“A gentleman must not appear naked.” — a prescription of ritual modesty; 裸 represents physical bareness within moral discourse.

Zhuangzi (莊子 · 達生):

「衣服不織而裸。」

“He wears no woven clothes but goes naked,” referring to the natural man unbound by social conventions.

Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典 vol. 1001) glosses:

「裸，無衣貌也。」

“裸 describes the appearance of having no clothing.”

The semantic contrast between 裸 (‘bare’) and 裹 (‘wrapped’) shows a recurrent morphological inversion in Chinese — where the same elements, differently arranged, express opposite ideas.

In modern Chinese and Korean, 裸 retains both literal and figurative senses: physical nakedness (나체) and conceptual exposure (적라의 진실 “the naked truth”).