cosplay meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

cosplay

noun

UK /ˈkɒz.pleɪ/ · US /ˈkɑz.pleɪ/

Etymology Borrowed from Japanese コスプレ (kosupure), which is a clipping of コスチュームプレイ (kosuchūmu purei), from a compound of English costume + play.

The art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.

Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers.2003, Cosplay Girls: Japan's Live Animation Heroines:
The environments and spaces created for and by cosplay provide cosplayers with a variety of spaces for social interactions.2006, Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime And Manga, page 75:

1 more example

It didn't take long for anime cons and cosplay to become a part of popular culture fandom in the West[…]2010, Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, Boys' Love Manga, page 5:

A skit or instance of this art or practice.

Central to the activity of cosplay is elaborate costuming, though some cosplays are enacted using a game system.2010, Sarah Lynne Bowman, The Functions of Role-playing Games, page 29:
According to a student from France who went to Japan to study Japanese, "Universities in France are like Halloween when otaku students engage in these cosplays. They take Japanese language because of anime, but they see after a few classes that it's hard and not fun. Many drop out" (author interview, 2009).2010, Anne Cooper-Chen, Cartoon Cultures: The Globalization of Japanese Popular Media, page 121:

1 more example

Popular cosplays include, for example, characters from the Final Fantasy range of games[…]2012, Dan Hunter, Ramon Lobato, Megan Richardson, Amateur Media: Social, cultural and legal perspectives:

verb

Etymology Borrowed from Japanese コスプレ (kosupure), which is a clipping of コスチュームプレイ (kosuchūmu purei), from a compound of English costume + play.

To costume oneself as a character.

She cosplayed at the manga convention.
Senior politicians have cosplayed as train drivers, ambulance workers, Border Force officials – the list goes on.2022 December 23, Marina Hyde, “Who can doubt the futuristic brilliance of Sunak and co? They’ve given us driverless government”, in The Guardian:

To costume oneself as (a character).

Derogatory, Figuratively, Often To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another.

Why has the Russian Federation decided to cosplay the Nazi Third Reich by attacking the peaceful neighboring state and plunging the region into war?2022 March 17, Aila Slisco, “Ukrainian UN Ambassador Accuses Russians of Engaging in 'Nazi Cosplay'”, in Newsweek, retrieved 18 Mar 2022:
On weekends, there was usually a party. Her classmates, free from their wealthy families, cosplayed as struggling intellectuals.2022, Ling Ma, “Office Hours”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:

3 more examples

[…] turning conservative white men into amateur commandos cosplaying war wherever they liked and the US into a war zone.2022 May 30, Rebecca Solnit, “US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority”, in The Guardian:
Whilst their stability was generally an improvement on earlier German destroyers, as the vessels no longer displayed a strong desire to cosplay as U-boats, the main armament proved to be something of a problem.2022 August 27, Drachinifel, 2:44 from the start, in Type 1936A / Narvik class - Guide 298, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2022:
Nigel Farage is a “political fraud and hypocrite” who is “cosplaying” as a working-class champion in order to win votes at this week’s local elections, the UK’s most senior union chief has warned.2025 April 27, Pippa Crerar, quoting Paul Nowak, “Nigel Farage is a political fraud ‘cosplaying’ as working-class champion, TUC chief says”, in The Guardian, →ISSN: