bikini1
/bɪˈkiːni
/noun (plural bikinis)
A two-piece swimming costume for women: Karen put on a yellow sun dress over her bikini [as modifier]: a bikini top...
- It may be winter outside, but Marks & Spencer is hotting up with fantastic bikinis, swimsuits, tankinis and dresses to flatter all.
- A lot of hardy Scots braved what were chilly conditions and sported swimming costumes and even bikinis.
- Some of the great sparkling looks came in tiny swimsuits or two-piece bikinis studded with silver nail heads including crocheted white suits.
Origin
1940s: named after Bikini, where an atom bomb was exploded in 1946 (because of the supposed 'explosive' effect created by the garment).
In 1946 the USA exploded an atom bomb at Bikini, an atoll in the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. Not long after, a scanty two-piece swimming costume caused a sensation on the beaches of France. Its effect was so great that the French called it the bikini. The word seems to have appeared first in English in a US newspaper, the Waterloo Daily Courier, on 26 June 1947. In an article on swimwear it reports: ‘The French, it seems, have a new suit planned that is about twice as wide as a piece of string. It's so explosive that they call it the Bikini.’
Rhymes
Bikini2
/bɪˈkiːni/An atoll in the Marshall Islands, in the western Pacific, used by the US between 1946 and 1958 as a site for testing nuclear weapons.