How did 服 come to have meanings related to both "clothing" and "submission"?


服 by itself means "clothing" (e.g. 服を着る), and there are also some related
derivative terms like 私服, 制服, 和服, 洋服, etc. On the other hand, you have words
like 征服 "conquest", 克服 "overcoming", 承服 "compliance", 服従 "obedience", which I
have broadly classed as being related to the idea of "submission".

How did 服 come to have these two seemingly-unrelated meanings? Is this a
purely Japanese innovation, or is it like this in Chinese too?




The [Online Kanji Etymology
Dictionary](http://www.kanjinetworks.com/eng/kanji-dictionary/online-kanji-
etymology-dictionary.cfm?kanji_id=PUAK06) has some rather terse notes on how
these two meanings came to be. _A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters_
(Henshall) describes its history as:

> Once written ![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AMdmY.jpg) showing a boat 舟, a
> person 卩, and a hand 又. [...] The early meaning is known to have been
> **work** , and some scholars feel that it meant literally bend down in order
> to work on [a boat]. **Yield/serve** is felt to derive from a combined idea
> of bending down and performing work. How exactly it came to mean **clothes**
> , however, is not clear. It is assumed to be a borrowed meaning, though it
> is also possible that 服 once came by extension to indicate a **servant's
> livery**.

Going back to the Online Kanji Etymology Dictionary, you can see that the
original form (![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AMdmY.jpg)) had 舟 (boat) replaced
with 肉 (⺼; flesh) in seal script (![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PpxzN.jpg)),
which may be where "clothes" comes from---"clothes that spread over/cling to
the body".




The [Online Kanji Etymology
Dictionary](http://www.kanjinetworks.com/eng/kanji-dictionary/online-kanji-
etymology-dictionary.cfm?kanji_id=PUAK06) has some rather terse notes on how
these two meanings came to be. _A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters_
(Henshall) describes its history as:

> Once written ![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AMdmY.jpg) showing a boat 舟, a
> person 卩, and a hand 又. [...] The early meaning is known to have been
> **work** , and some scholars feel that it meant literally bend down in order
> to work on [a boat]. **Yield/serve** is felt to derive from a combined idea
> of bending down and performing work. How exactly it came to mean **clothes**
> , however, is not clear. It is assumed to be a borrowed meaning, though it
> is also possible that 服 once came by extension to indicate a **servant's
> livery**.

Going back to the Online Kanji Etymology Dictionary, you can see that the
original form (![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AMdmY.jpg)) had 舟 (boat) replaced
with 肉 (⺼; flesh) in seal script (![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PpxzN.jpg)),
which may be where "clothes" comes from---"clothes that spread over/cling to
the body".

