Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural bi·ki·nis.
- a very brief, close-fitting, two-piece bathing suit for women or girls.
- a very brief, close-fitting pair of bathing trunks for men or boys.
- Often bikinis. underwear briefs that are fitted low on the hip or below it.
noun
- an atoll in the N Pacific, in the Marshall Islands: atomic bomb tests 1946. 3 sq. mi. (8 sq. km).
noun plural -nis
- a woman’s very brief two-piece swimming costume
noun
- an atoll in the N Pacific; one of the Marshall Islands: site of a US atomic-bomb test in 1946
“low-waisted two-piece women’s bathing suit,” 1948, from French coinage, 1947, named for U.S. A-bomb test of June 1946 on Bikini, Marshall Islands atoll, locally Pikinni and said to derive from pik “surface” and ni “coconut,” but this is uncertain. Various explanations for the swimsuit name have been suggested, none convincingly, the best being an analogy of the explosive force of the bomb and the impact of the bathing suit style on men’s libidos (cf. c.1900 British slang assassin “an ornamental bow worn on the female breast,” so called because it was very “killing”).
Bikini, ce mot cinglant comme l’explosion même … correspondant au niveau du vêtement de plage à on anéantissement de la surface vêtue; à une minimisation extrême de la pudeur. [Le Monde, 1947]
As a style of scanty briefs, from 1960. Variant trikini (1967), with separate bra cups held on by Velcro, falsely presumes a compound in bi-.