What constitutes a bodysuit?

The wiki for bodysuit isn't very clear on this issue, and I feel the definition needs some tightening up. I've been going through the tag to populate the colors I did the BUR for in forum #122248 and seeing some images that should fit more with leotard, like post #1875021 , post #1808328 or post #1919204 (I've changed them to be leotards now, but those were what I found in the bodysuit category).

Then I come across the more unusual designs and lengths for bodysuits like these:

post #1829945
post #2027696
post #1992632
post #2054362
post #1469806 vs. post #2073512
post #2340198
post #2158868
post #2363802

My multitude of questions are as such:

• What exactly in this group is and isn't considered a bodysuit?

• How much of the body has to be covered before it just becomes revealing clothes?

• How short can a bodysuit be before it's considered a leotard instead?

• Does a bodysuit have to consist of a continuous piece of fabric running from the upper torso to at least the upper legs, or can it be considered the sum of different parts like armor, boots, thighhighs and such?

• Should there be a short_bodysuit tag made for instances like Nu-13 and Tachibana Hibiki?

• Likewise, should there be an open_bodysuit tag for something like post #2257959 or post #2085575?

I think images such post #2257959 and post #2085575 don't particularly need a separate tag since the unzipped and open clothes tags I feel are sufficient enough for that.

I do feel like we need more clarification with what exactly constitutes a bodysuit and how much of the body it needs to cover for qualify for usage though. Posts like post #1829945 or especially post #2054362 aren't something I would personally quantify as qualifying for the use of the bodysuit tag due to how much they don't really match the wiki's definition of a bodysuit for example.

It doesn't help that Google, Wikipedia, and other dictionary sites seem to have the definitions for a bodysuit and a unitard backwards. Their definitions are as such:

Bodysuit: A one-piece form-fitting garment that covers the torso and the crotch. The style of a basic bodysuit is similar to a one-piece swimsuit and a leotard, though the materials may vary.

Unitard: A tight-fitting one-piece garment of stretchable fabric that covers the body from the neck to the knees or feet.

So basically, a bodysuit is a leotard, and a unitard is a bodysuit. No wonder there's so much confusion with tagging.

Yeah, I'd agree with the "tight-fitting one-piece garment that covers the body from neck to knees" definition for bodysuit, while a leotard/unitard is when the legs are uncovered.

I'm not sure what to call those other revealing outfits you've listed, but I wouldn't consider them to be bodysuits.

I've updated the bodysuit wiki to include a better definition and some good and bad examples for clarification, if anyone wants to review it.

But now I've come across another problem, specifically with unitard. As it stands, I don't see any difference between it and the new definition for bodysuit that I wrote. Would it be better to alias unitard to bodysuit, or is there a further distinction (plus tag gardening) that needs to be made?

My understanding of the unitard is that it a skin tight fabric covering from the neck all the way to the feet, such as post #16452, post #504417 or post #314640. Catsuit makes the distinction of adding a zipper, zentai includes covering the head, while bikesuit and wetsuit are designed for their respective sports. At the moment, unitard also has a bunch of posts with short-length bodysuits, so there's no difference between it and the bodysuit tags.

I'd say that Tachibana Hibiki's outfit in post #2507290 is a bodysuit but not a unitard from the definition for bodysuit you wrote in the wiki and the one you posted for unitard in this thread. Same with Nu-13's.

I don't think it's very common in illustrations to have bodysuits that go past the knees but not all the way to the feet.

So the definition for unitard should be more like this?

"One continuous piece of fabric that covers the body from the neck all the way down to the feet. This is considered a subset of bodysuit because that can cover down to at least the upper legs, while this covers the entire body."

I don't think it's very common in illustrations to have bodysuits that go past the knees but not all the way to the feet.

I haven't seen any capri-styled bodysuits anywhere, but I was surprised by the number of posts that have a single pantsleg.

Are there any objections to the updated unitard wiki referring to the bodysuit reaching to the feet? I would like to garden those posts once I finish with the colored bodysuits.