Logic-ini

With Charlie Brown, it was the football and the kite-eating tree. With Cathy, year after year, the nemesis is the swimsuit department: 

 

(Click image to view larger.)

Yes, I'm a little obsessed with the whole -ini issue. What I find interesting here is the use of the -ini suffix in its Italian diminutive sense--as though tankini meant "little tank" (and bikini, by extension, meant "little bik," and logic-ini meant "a little bit of logic").

To recap: first there was bikini from Bikini Atoll in the northern Pacific ("bikini" is a Micronesian word that possibly means coconut surface). Because the first syllable of bikini reminded Westerners of  the Greek bi- prefix meaning "two," bikini begat monokini. Then -kini took on independent suffixhood, turning into tankini, mankini, and burkini.

Now -ini is shedding its k and taking on a teeny-weeny life of its own.

(Hat tip: MJF.) 

Comments

[Karen]

Oy, I need a martini after reading that.

[Nick Tata]

Cathy asks, " How do you even come up with these things?" It's easy. Most fashion designers hate women. Disagree? Look around.