Editing Bikini (section)

== Etymology and terminology ==
While the two-piece swimsuit as a design existed in [[classical antiquity]],<ref name=Agrawala>{{cite book|last=Agrawala|first=P.K.|title=Goddesses in Ancient India|year=1983|publisher=Humanities Press|location=Atlantic Highlands, N.J.|isbn=978-0-391-02960-6|edition=first |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BmDIbNuD0gC&pg=PA12}}</ref> the modern design first attracted public notice in Paris on July 5, 1946.<ref name="BBCW">{{Cite news |last=Westcott |first=Kathryn |date=2006-07-05 |title=The bikini: Not a brief affair |language=en-GB |work=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5130460.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2023-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721185042/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5130460.stm |archive-date=July 21, 2008}}</ref> 

[[File:Able_crossroads.jpg|right|thumb|[[Operation Crossroads]] was a nuclear test series at the [[Bikini Atoll]], and the inspiration for the naming of two French swimsuit designs at the time, including the bikini.]]

In May 1946, Parisian fashion designer [[Jacques Heim]] released a two-piece swimsuit design that he named the {{lang|fr|Atome}} ('Atom') and advertised as "the smallest swimsuit in the world".<ref>{{cite web |first=Thomas G. II |last=Cole |url=http://www.genders.org/g53/g53_cole.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110901063358/http://www.genders.org/g53/g53_cole.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-09-01 |title=(The) Bikini: EmBodying the Bomb |publisher=Genders Journal}}</ref> Like swimsuits of the era, it covered the wearer's belly button, and it failed to attract much attention. French automotive engineer [[Louis Réard]] introduced a design he named the "Bikini", adopting the name from the [[Bikini Atoll]] in the Pacific Ocean,<ref name="HistC">{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bikini-introduced |title=Bikini Introduced |access-date=September 17, 2008 |publisher=[[A&E Television Networks]]}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |first=Paula |last=Cocozza |title=A little piece of history |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/jun/10/sttropez.filminspiredtravel.france.culturaltrips |work=The Guardian |location=UK |date=June 10, 2006 |access-date=September 17, 2008 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080927104351/http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/jun/10/sttropez.filminspiredtravel.france.culturaltrips?gusrc=rss&feed=travel| archive-date= September 27, 2008| url-status= live}}</ref> which was the colonial name the Germans gave to the atoll, borrowed from the [[Marshallese language|Marshallese]] name for the island, {{lang|mh|Pikinni}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.trussel2.com/MOD/LocP.htm#Pikinni|title=Marshallese-English Dictionary – Place Name Index|website=www.trussel2.com|access-date=July 23, 2016}}</ref> Four days earlier, on 1 July 1946, the United States had initiated its first peacetime [[nuclear weapon design|nuclear weapons]] [[nuclear testing|test]] [[Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll|at Bikini Atoll]] as part of [[Operation Crossroads]]. Unlike the prior [[Trinity test]], or most subsequent nuclear test series, the United States allowed both international observers and the global press to observe Crossroads, creating an intense international interest in the new weapon and its testing. Réard never explained why he chose the name "Bikini" for the swimsuit.<ref name="weisgall"></ref> Various motivations have been attributed to his choosing of the name, including the idea that he hoped it would create "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" similar to the explosion at Bikini Atoll,<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The History of the Bikini|url=https://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1908353_1905440,00.html|magazine=Time|access-date=August 20, 2013|date=July 3, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/002bikini.html |title=Tiny Swimsuit That Rocked the World: A History of the Bikini |publisher=Randomhistory.com |date=May 1, 2007 |access-date=December 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808002739/http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/002bikini.html |archive-date=August 8, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> that it was meant to be associated with the "exotic allure of the tropical Pacific", from the "comparison of the effects of a scantily clad woman to the atomic bomb,"<ref name="weisgall"></ref> and the idea that Reard's design had out-done Heim's design and "split the ''atome''".<ref>{{cite book|last=Acton|first=Johnny|title=Origin of everyday things|publisher=think|year=2006|page=34}}</ref> Réard's advertising slogan was that the Bikini was "smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world."<ref name="weisgall"></ref> The swimsuit's name was typically capitalized for several years after its coining.<ref name="weisgall"></ref>

It has been frequently cited as a major example of a "psychological link between atomic destruction and sexuality" in popular culture, which includes the stenciling of [[Rita Hayworth]] onto one of the bombs detonated at Crossroads,<ref name="weisgall"></ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Atomic Goddess Revisited|last=Geerhart|first=Bill|url=https://conelrad.blogspot.com/2013/08/atomic-goddess-revisited-rita-hayworths.html|publisher=CONELRAD Adjacent|date=19 August 2013}}</ref> and its persistence in language has been argued as having "trivialized and downplayed the reality of nuclear testing," given the contamination done by especially [[Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll|later US thermonuclear tests at Bikini]] and other [[Marshall Islands|Marshallese]] atolls.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=Steve|title=Archaeology of brutal encounter: Heritage and bomb testing on Bikini Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands|journal=Archaeology in Oceania|date=April 2013|volume=48|number=1|pages=26–39|doi=10.1002/arco.5000 }}</ref>

By making an analogy with words like ''bilingual'' and ''bilateral'' containing the Latin prefix "[[bi-]]" (meaning "two" in Latin), the word ''bikini'' was first [[Back-derivation|back-derived]] as consisting of two parts, [''bi'' + ''kini''] by [[Rudi Gernreich]], who introduced the [[monokini]] in 1964.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gold|first=David L.|title=Studies in Etymology and Etiology|pages=100–101|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l015C5vm1XkC&pg=PA100|year=2009|publisher=Universidad de Alicante|isbn=978-84-7908-517-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Alac|first=Patrik|title=Bikini Story|year=2012|publisher=Parkstone International|isbn=978-1-78042-951-9|page=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SIj_GBl5sAoC&q=Rudi%20Gernreich%201964%20monokini&pg=PA68}}</ref> Later swimsuit designs like the [[tankini]] and [[trikini]] further cemented this derivation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gurmit Singh|author2=Ishtla Singh|title=The History of English|pages=13–14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=taEnAAAAQBAJ&q=bikini%20latin%20prefix%20back%20formation&pg=PA13|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-4441-1924-4}}</ref> Over time the "''–kini'' family" (as dubbed by author [[William Safire]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safire |first=William |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/893687501 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |title=No Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-7432-4955-3 |edition=First Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=893687501}}</ref>), including the "''–ini'' sisters" (as dubbed by designer Anne Cole<ref>{{Cite web |last=Donnally |first=Trish |date=1999-05-18 |title="Inis" Are In / Bikini's little sisters have their moment in the sun |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Inis-Are-In-Bikini-s-little-sisters-have-2930316.php |access-date=2023-04-14 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US}}</ref>), expanded into a variety of swimwear including the monokini (also known as a numokini or unikini), seekini, [[tankini]], camikini, {{Not a typo|hikini}} (also hipkini), minikini, [[face-kini]], [[burkini]], and [[microkini]].<ref name="barryJ">{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=Barry J. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/608111359 |title=Playing with words : humour in the English language |date=2007 |publisher=Equinox Publishing |isbn=978-1-84553-577-3 |location=London |pages=59 |oclc=608111359}}</ref> The ''[[Language Report]]'', compiled by lexicographer [[Susie Dent]] and published by the [[Oxford University Press]] (OUP) in 2003, considers lexicographic inventions like bandeaukini and camkini, two variants of the tankini, important to observe.<ref>"[http://www.articlearchives.com/humanities-social-science/language-languages/644034-1.html The Language Report: The ultimate record of what we're saying and how we're saying it] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005073022/http://www.articlearchives.com/humanities-social-science/language-languages/644034-1.html |date=October 5, 2015}}", ''Science News'' (from ''Article Archive''), August 7, 2004</ref> Although "bikini" was originally a registered trademark of Réard, it has since become [[generic trademark|genericized]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Shontell |first=Alyson |date=September 17, 2010 |title=15 Words You Had No Idea Used To Be Brand Names <nowiki>|</nowiki> Bikini |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/15-words-you-had-no-idea-used-to-be-brand-names-2010-9?IR=T#bikini-2 |access-date=May 8, 2016 |work=[[Business Insider]]}}</ref>

Variations of the term are used to describe [[Bikini variant|stylistic variations]] for promotional purposes and industry classifications, including monokini, [[microkini]], [[tankini]], [[trikini]], [[pubikini]], [[bandeaukini]] and [[skirtini]]. A man's [[Swim briefs|brief swimsuit]] may also be referred to as a bikini.<ref name="Bikini"/> Similarly, a variety of men's and women's underwear types are described as bikini underwear.