On the Visual Thesaurus: Bikini and Beyond

Hello, summer! And hello to what the ladymags like to call “bikini season.” My new column for the Visual Thesaurus investigates how the bikini got its name (in 1946 France) and why the word has been such a productive contributor to our vocabulary.

Access is restricted to subscribers. Here’s an itsy-bitsy excerpt:

Eventually, “-kini” acquired enough independent meaning that it became detached from the concept of skimpiness. In 1985, swimsuit designer Anne Cole introduced a suit that combined a bikini-style bottom with a relatively demure, hip-length tank top. The company called it the “tankini,” a descriptor that has endured. Or consider the full-coverage Burqini: a portmanteau of “burqa” and “bikini,” it’s the registered trademark for a full-body suit—only the face and hands are revealed—introduced in 2007 by a Lebanese-Australian swimsuit designer to meet the needs of active Muslim women. The Burqini (known generically as the burkini or the veilkini) was popularized by a non-Muslim, the British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, who told reporters she wore the garment to prevent sunburn. Also innocent (and also a trademark): Babi-kini, a U.S. company that makes wee swimsuits for infants and toddlers.

Read the rest of “Bikini and Beyond.”

Bonus link #1: My 2008 blog post on bikinis and their -kini kin.

Bonus link #2: Why do men’s magazines love flag bikinis?

 

Comments

[rootlesscosmo]

Somewhere or other, S.J. Perelman used the verb "bikinize" (transitive) which I would guess he picked up in advertising or PR lingo of the late 40's; register-switching was one of his stylistic trademarks, and it would have been just like him to drop a nonce-word into a passage of otherwise unremarkable prose. The implied meaning was "have an explosive effect on," as I recall; I imagine this being inspired by a release announcing that "Our Fall line will bikinize the world of men's accessories" or something of that kind. (Perelman either coined or appropriated--with a pair of tongs--"goodylicious.")

[Nancy Friedman]

@rootless cosmo: I wrote about Perelman and "goodylicious" in a 2009 post, "The Tastiest Suffix":
http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2009/12/the-tastiest-suffix.html