COSPLAY is the abbreviation of English costume drama, and Japanese is コスプレ. It refers to the use of clothing, accessories, props and makeup to play the role in animation works and games. People who play COSPLAY are generally called COSPLAYER.

Cosplay's narrow interpretation is to imitate and dress up the characters in the virtual world, also known as role-playing. As a result, a new meaning has been derived from the internet, which is often used to describe "a person who pretends to be a certain person".

CN: Ye Jiuqi

Cosplay- origin: the abbreviation of English "CostumePlay" put forward by Nov.Takahashi. His inspiration came from the international masquerade ball in San Francisco, USA. His enthusiasm for Cosplay expressed in the article (1982) published in the Japanese magazine "MyAnime" triggered the 1982-83 Cosplay movement in Japan. Although cosplay did not originate in Japan, American cosplay was greatly influenced by Japanese cosplay.

Cosplay (noun) = wearing clothes about anime characters.

Cosplay (verb) = Put on clothes about cartoon characters.

Cosplayer= the man in costume.

Crossplay (verb) = part of cosplay: play the opposite sex in cosplay.

Crossplayer = a person who plays the opposite sex in cosplay.

Cross dressing = wearing clothes of the opposite sex. Just because a person is cross-dressing, it doesn't mean that he is cross-playing (that is, pretending to be a man, and the latter likes girls' clothes, so the former is cross dressing, not cross-playing). Crossplay has nothing to do with cosdressing, but only with the sex of the actor and the sex of the object.