Demi, Hemi & Semi

Demi- (pronounced dem-ee or dem-ahy)

Of less than full size, status, or rank.

Circa 1350s: From the Middle English demi (half, half-sized, partial), from the twelfth century Anglo-Norman demi (half), from the Vulgar Latin dimedius, from the Classical Latin dīmidius, the construct being dis- (apart; in two) + medius (middle).  The French demi which English borrowed was a combining form which existed as noun, adjective, and adverb.  It appears in loanwords from French meaning “half” (demilune), “lesser” (demitasse), or sometimes used with a pejorative sense (demimonde) and, on that model, is also prefixed to words of English origin (eg demigod).

Hemi- (pronounced hem-ee)

A combining form meaning “half,” used in the formation of compound words (eg hemispherical, hemimorphic, hemicardia etc).

Pre 900: From the Middle English hemi from the Ancient Greek prefix ἡμι- (hēmi-) (half), from ἥμισυς (hḗmisus) (half).  It was cognate with the Classical Latin sēmi- and, as a word -forming element meaning "half", was a Middle English borrowing from the Latin hemi- which was taken directly from the Greek hēmi- (half) from the primitive Indo-European semi-, source also of the Sanskrit सामि (sāmí), the Old High German sami- (half) the Old English sam- and others, all soon denoting a partial or imperfect condition as well as the classically correct “half”.

Semi- (pronounced sem-ee)

(1) Half (strictly speaking) as in “semicircle”.

(2) In informal use, a proportion of something less than the whole.

(3) In English, a combining form or prefix (sometimes hyphenated) appended to words of any origin, usually with the senses of “partially,” “incompletely” or “somewhat” (eg semi-final, semi-trailer, semiautomatic, semi-articulated, semi-detached etc).

1400s: From the Middle English semi, from the Latin sēmi- (half).  It was connected with the Old English sōm- & sām- (half) (and related to the modern dialectical sam-), the Old High German sāmi-, the Sanskrit सामि (sāmí) and the Ancient Greek hemi-.  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European sēmi.

The word-forming prefixes semi-, hemi-, and demi- all began life meaning “half” but have evolved to mean other things too and exist also not just as prefixes but as stand-alone forms.  As a prefix, there appears to be 951 words with a “semi-” prefix, around 215 with a “hemi-” while a “demi” is appended only to 172, and, although it’s never been a rule, because of the origins, “demi-” is probably best paired with words of French origin, whereas “semi-” is a more natural fit with words with a Latin root.

Semi- may refer to something happening more than once (usually twice) within a certain time and is probably most familiar as “semi-final” to describe the matches of a competition which will determine the finalists.  In English it was used first to mean “half but became soon attached to concepts impossible to quantify (eg semi-abstract; semi-permanent) and thus came to mean also “virtually” or “somewhat.”

Hemi- is often employed in the hard-sciences.  It’s less commonly used than semi-, the association with the technical language of fields such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology and anatomy tending to mean it’s applied with more exactitude but even here, practices of use have produced anomalies.  In general use, it’s perhaps best known as a descriptor of the shape of the combustion chamber of certain internal combustion chambers to the extent of “Hemi” the noun being a Stellantis (the holding company of which Chrysler is now a part) trademark, even though many of the engines the company now market as such use a different shape.

Lindsay Lohan in underwired demi-cup bra, photoshoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love Magazine, 2012.  The "demi-cup look" can be achieved by choosing a bra with the correct band size and a smaller cup.  Someone who usually wears a full-cup 32D would use a 32C or even 32B to get the effect although, given the variation in cup shapes between manufacturers, some experimentation will likely be required and fitters caution this should be done in a physical store rather than shopping on-line. 

The demi-cup style is most associated with the “push-up” bra of which Playtex's Wonderbra is the best known.  As the name implies, a demi-cup bra is one where the fabric covers rather less than the mainstream “full cup” bra although not necessarily half, some more revealing than others and the demi-cup is designed better to display the cleavage but need not do so in the exaggerated manner of the push-up bra, almost all of which use a kind of demi-cup.   Many demi-cup bras don't use the push-up engineering though they typically include most of the familiar components (padding, underwires etc).  A variation of the demi style is also inherent to the “plunge bra”, designed to accommodate garments with a low cut but why the industry settled on demi-cup rather than semi-cup isn't known and the term isn't universal, some manufacturers preferring "half cup".  Still, it's definitely all about the cup and to be regarded as a demi bra, it should be constructed with partial cups which cover between 50-75% of the breast and coverage should be the same all across the bra (similar to a balconette bra) as opposed to Plunge or T-Shirt bras where there's a slight dip in the middle.  Additionally, most demis use an underwire in a slightly wider than usual U-shape, evenly arched.

Demi- is used suggest something of less than full-size or status although it doesn’t of necessity imply something inferior.  In English, it’s the rarest of the three forms and, in English, was first used in heraldry, where things like demi-angels, demi-lions, demi-horses were applied to escutcheons.  It also held sway in certain niches such as the military (demi-brigade) and fashion (demi-cap; demi-lustre; demi-worsted) and coach-building (demi-limousine).  Of late, it has absorbed the sense of “virtual” as well as “lesser” and is quirky too: A demigod, while certainly not quite the real thing can be applied with either negative or positive connotations.

1969 Ford Torino Talladega.

Although modest by comparison with Chrysler’s radial Daytona and Superbird, Ford’s aerodynamic enhancements to the Torino proved surprisingly effective.  Actually, so good was the Talladega that when the sleek-looking replacement was released, the racers found it was slower and kept their Talladegas in service as long as they were eligible.  Ford had produced enough of their Fairlane-based Torino Talladegas to run them on the NASCAR circuits but needed to sell five-hundred cars with their new BOSS 429 V8 engine to reach the homologation threshold.

A helpfully inserted quirk in the NASCAR rules allowed them to put the engine in the Mustang rather than the larger Torino which would actually be used for competition.  That was good because the BOSS 429 Mustang attracted great interest and Ford sold more than enough to comply, something few were confident of doing with the Torino.  Additionally, and again helpfully, any doubts about the eligibility of the new engine had been resolved when NASCAR nudged the displacement limit by a couple of cubes.  The capacity limit of 428 cubic inches (7014 cm³) had been imposed in 1963 after Ford, caught cheating using a specialized aerodynamic part called a Starlift roof, sent one of the now-banned cars, fitted with a 483 cubic inch (7.9 litre) engine, to the Bonneville salt flats and set a number of international speed records.  NASCAR was watching what had started out as a "stock car" racing series in which essentially amateur teams could on a good day compete with the professionals, turn into a place where to be competitive, what was required was a big-budget operation, supported by the factories making available exotic and expensive components which had no purpose except on a race track.  Knowing where that 483 would be heading, NASCAR cracked down.  There would be plenty of other squabbles about engines during the 1960s but by the time the BOSS 429 came along, all was forgiven, NASCAR raising the limit to  430 cubic inches (7046 cm³).

1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429.

That was also bad because the Boss 429 was a big lump designed to fit in the wide-bodied intermediates and such was the task to shoehorn it into the narrower Mustang that the job had to be out-sourced to a specialist contractor because inserting the labour-intensive programme into the highly-structured Ford production-lines would have been too disruptive.  Thus, cars were delivered to the contractor which also received the 429 engines in crates.  Destined originally to be fitted with the physically smaller 428 SCJ engines, it was no small task to make the 429 fit, the shock towers being moved outwards along with the upper and lower control arms and stiffer springs were fitted and, surprisingly, it actually worked out quite well.  Although the bulky heads made the 429 a wide piece of machinery, they were made of aluminum and the total package was barely heavier than the all-iron 428 and some even included a few magnesium components which were lighter still.  The changes made had the effect of moving the front wheels further apart and increasing their negative camber and this gave the Boss 429 the best handling and road manners of any big-block Mustang although, it was still a front-heavy thing and clumsy to drive at low speed.  Re-locating the battery to the boot helped weight-distribution a little but none of the changes were ever going to make it behave like a Lotus Elan.

1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429.

However, one implication of things being such a tight fit was that there wasn’t the space to fit a free-flowing exhaust system so in the Mustang it was never possible for the engine to breathe as deeply as it did in the big NASCAR stockers and knowing this, Ford made no attempt to configure the it for maximum output, the carburetor smaller than those used on the Boss 302 and Boss 351.  Nor were the internal components assembled in a specification consistently intended to maximize performance, some built (supposedly in error) with a valve train which limited engine speed and the project anyway was a homologation exercise designed to sell the requisite number of parts required to qualify them for competition although, despite the low production spread over only two years, there were three distinct variations.  The first few hundred (S-code) units used heavy connecting rods secured with ½ inch (13 mm) bolts whereas the rest of the 1969 run and most built in 1970 (T-code) were fitted with lighter pieces and ⅜ (9 mm) bolts and initially, the early T-code engines carried over the hydraulic lifters from the S-code but production soon switched to a solid lifters with a somewhat more lumpy camshaft, the magnesium valve covers at the same time replaced with units cast in aluminum.  Finally there was an edition (A-code) which appeared in the last few of those built in 1970 and it varied from the T-series specification only in in some changes to the plumbing associated with what was still a quite rudimentary anti-pollution system.  Whatever its variations, a Boss 429 Mustang was what it was.

The shotgun ports.

It was also what it was not.  Expectations were high and, on paper, not unreasonable because the notion of putting a genuine seven litre racing engine in something as (relatively) small as the Mustang did hint at something special but, with the strangled engine, although quick, it wasn’t a cataclysm on wheels and the opposition was quicker still.  One of the issues was the fundamental design of those exotic heads.  Nick-named shotgun because the intake and exhaust ports reminded many of the double-barrels of a 12-gauge (although each was large enough almost to swallow a tennis ball), they worked admirably in the Talladegas at high-speed where they were matched with a big carburetor and free-flowing exhaust system.  On the street however, the big shotgun ports rarely saw sustained high-speed running and their sheer size meant the fuel at low speed didn’t achieve the flow-rate necessary for the low-end response needed on the street or strip.

1969 Boss 429 on stand with open exhaust headers.

Prior to release there was talk of quarter-mile runs somewhere in the twelve second range but in reality, no stock Boss 429 ever went quicker than low fourteens, enough to put it in the upper echelon of the muscle car era but there were those who expected more.  More did come, as initially disillusioned engine builders began to understand what it responded to, it became for decades one of the dominant forces in drag-racing, the shotgun ports meaning it took to forced aspiration like few engines, twin-turbocharged Boss engines able to generate thousands of horsepower.

1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429.

So it was quite a legacy and the surviving Mustangs now sell for as much as US$250,000.  Although Ford was compelled to build only 500, 857-odd were sold in 1969 and 499 in 1970 so it’s a bit of an oddity, quite a rarity yet almost mass-produced compared with some of the limited production machines of the muscle car era and such is the allure that there are companies now producing reproductions of the famous heads, modified slightly to fit regular production blocks.  It’s never been known how much money Ford lost on each Mustang it sold but, fitted with the famous Holley Dominator 1150 CFM carburetor and open exhaust headers suited to an engine happiest running at full throttle, the BOSS 429 did its job on the circuits and the company seemed happy with the investment although its life as a flag-bearer would be short, motorsport soon to be neglected as a changing world and a onrush of legislation demanding compliance needing the resources the circuits soaked up.

The semi-hemi combustion chamber.

As well as being nick-named the shotgun, it was also called the semi-hemi.  The BOSS 429’s combustion chambers weren’t actually hemispherical but they tended towards the shape (and the ones used in the race cars sometimes were).  Although Ford apparently would have preferred to have them known as a "blue crescent", it didn't catch on and, there being no obvious word in use to describe what they looked like, they came to be known as semi-hemi.  Musicologists had already gone one better than Ford.  Noting that English had contrived to borrow three words from Antiquity in order to have three prefixes meaning “half”, they invented hemidemisemiquaver to describe a sixty-fourth of a note (ie a half of a half of a half of an eighth note), a coining from that year of semi-revolutions: 1848.

Bikini

Bikini (pronounced bih-kee-nee

(1) A two-piece bathing suit for women.

(2) A style of brief fitted low on the hip or slightly below.

(3) The name of an atoll in the North Pacific; one of the Marshall Islands and the site of two-dozen odd US nuclear weapon tests between 1946-1958 (with initial capital).

(4) As Bikini State, the UK Ministry of Defence's alert state indicator (1970-2006).

(5) In the retail coffee trade, barista slang applied to smaller variations such as a demitasse (or demi-tasse (half cup), used traditionally to serve espresso).

(6) In engineering & design, a casual term used sometimes for any shape deemed even vaguely bikinilike. 

1946:  Although known as the Eschscholtz Atoll until 1946, the modern English name is derived from the German colonial name Bikini, adopted while part of German New Guinea and was a transliteration from the Marshallese Pikinni (pʲi͡ɯɡɯ͡inʲːi), a construct of Pik (surface) + ni (coconut or surface of coconuts).  Bikini is a noun and bikinied, bikinilike and bikiniless are adjectives (bikiniesque is non-standard); the noun plural is bikinis.

Highly qualified content provider Busty Buffy in powder blue seekini (a bikini fashioned from a semi-sheer fabric).

In medicine, the “bikini-cut” or “bikini line incision” is doctor’s slang for the “Pfannenstiel incision”, a surgical incision permitting access to the abdomen, the exact location chosen for the optimal aesthetic outcome; it was named after German gynaecologist Hermann Johannes Pfannenstiel (1862–1909), who in 1900 invented the technique.  The modern slang is a reference to the “bikini line” (the part of a woman's pubic region not covered by a swimsuit (the fashion being it’s usually waxed, lasered or shaved to be free of pubic hair)).  In the UK, the technique was popularized by Professor John Munro Kerr (1868–1960) who published his results in 1920 (having first applied the method in 1911) and that's why in the English-speaking world the terms “Kerr incision” and “Pfannenstiel–Kerr incision” both are sometimes used.  In the slang of fat-shaming, a “fatkini” is a bikini larger a certain size and regarding the cut-off point where bikini becomes fatkini, some critics are more uncompromisingly stern than others.

1970 Monteverdi Hai 450 SS.

The skimpiness of the fabric used in a bikini's construction meant it could be used as a point of emphasis.  When in 1970 the Swiss boutique manufacturer Monteverdi displayed the Hai (German for "shark"), one journalist acknowledged the stunning speed but noted the lack of practicality, storage space judged to be adequate for a “topless bikini” (a numokini or unikini in the modern parlance).  Peter Monteverdi (1934–1998) claimed the Hai was "a pre-production prototype" and listed it in his catalogue at a then hefty US$27,000 (more than even the coach-built two-door versions of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and while they would have attracted a very different buyer-profile, the comparison was indicative of market relativities).  The consensus is Peter Monteverdi never intended series-production because the Hai was really just an impractical show-piece built to generate publicity (and in that it succeeded) though four eventually were made with only the first fitted with the charismatic 7.0 litre (426 cubic inch) Chrysler Street Hemi V8.  The other three, two of which were built shortly before Mr Monteverdi's death, used the less powerful but also less cantankerous 7.2 litre (440 cubic inch) unit.  As a footnote for trivia buffs, although it's accepted orthodoxy "the factory never installed air conditioning (A/C) in Street Hemi-equipped cars", Monteverdi did fit A/C to the first Hai so the true truism should read "No Chrysler factory ever..."          

Proliferation; variations on the theme of bikini

Bikinis: Samantha Ronson (left) admiring the black bikini of former special friend Lindsay Lohan (right), both with bare feet, Los Cabos, Mexico, October 2007.

The swimwear was first so named in 1946, the brief as a stand-alone garment adopting the term in 1960 while the trikini, dating from 1967, was a variation with separate bra cups fastened by Velcro.  A lack of structural integrity doomed the design for the mass-market but trikinis continue to be used by the fashion industry, mostly in static photography where movement is minimalized.  Trikini was at the time etymologically wrong because falsely it presumed bikini a compound with a bi prefix, an assumption not unreasonable because the English prefix bi is derived from the Classical Latin bi, which, like the Ancient Greek counterpart di, means “two”.  However, trikini is now etymologically correct because (1) bikini and its variations have been wholly been absorbed into English with compounds coined as needed and (2) progress in the fashion industry proved so prolific a new suffix (apparently first suggested by US author Bill Safire (1929–2009)), emerged: -kini.  Those thus far seen have included:

Monokini (a one-piece swimsuit in a variety of designs which tends to be variations on the notion of a bikini top and bottom in some way connected with (a usually minimal) piece of fabric although for the catwalks, designers have showed "bikinis" in which coverage is afforded to only one breast.

Bikini (a two-piece swimsuit with top & bottom)

Trikini (a type swimsuit which uses three, strategic-placed fabric triangles, sometimes achieved with the use of an adhesive)

Facekini (a piece of swimwear worn on the head and covering the face and head)

Burkini (a full body bathing suit which includes a hood; a kind of figure-hugging Burqa for swimming of which not all muftis & mullahs (and certainly no ayatollahs) approve)

Mankini (a kind of sling bikini for men)

Bandkini (a swimsuit consisting of strapless bandeau top and bikini bottom)

Halterkini (a swimsuit consisting of halter top and bikini bottom)

Tankini (a bathing suit composed of tank top and the lower half of a bikini)

Skirtini (a two-piece swimsuit consisting of top and short, skirted bottom)

Microkini (a very skimpy bikini)

Poligrill's helpful identification chart which illustrates the bikini's mix-and-match potential, wearers able to choose the styles best suited to different parts of the body and no longer is it expected (except by dictatorial types like Vogue's editors) the color or fabric of top need match bottom.

Nokini (an casual identifier for beach which permits toplessness for women)

Slingkini (a one-piece swimsuit resembling the Y-shape frame of a slingshot which is supported by fabric at the neck)

Stringkini (a two-piece swimsuit constructed with string-like cords that is scantier and more revealing than a regular bikini)

Sidekini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the side-boob effect (not suitable for all))

Camikini (a swimsuit consisting of thin-strapped camisole top and bikini bottom)

Flagkini (a swimsuit top informally created by the wrapping of a flag)

Duckini (a swimsuit made of a stick-on material (not to be confused with Kim Kardashian's endorsement of gaffer’s tape for use as ad-hoc corsetry))

Numokini (a bikini worn without the top (also called Unikini))

Underkini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the under-boob effect (not suitable for all))

Seekini (a translucent or semi-translucent swimsuit)

Hikini (a swimsuit with a higher-profile bottom)

Louis Réard with polka-dot bikini (left), an original 1946 Bikini (centre) and Mademoiselle Barnardini during the 1946 photo-shoot, clad in rather more fabric than previously she'd donned for her professional engagements.  

Louis Réard (1896-1984) was a French engineer who took over his mother's lingerie business, the bathing ensemble he designed debuting in 1946; as a concept it wasn’t new, such things documented by many cultures since antiquity but Réard’s design was minimalist by the standards of the time.  It was at the time suggested he choose the name because an exploding A-bomb was his preferred simile for the effect on men but in subsequent interviews he claimed his mind was focused on what he expected expected to be an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" to his design.  That's a significant distinction but both were based on the detonated device.  Although originally Réard’s registered trademark (patent number 19431), "bikini" has long been generic. When first displayed at Paris's Piscine Molitor (a large swimming pool complex) in July 1946, so scandalous did the established catwalk models find the notion of exposed navels that all declined the job so Monsieur Réard was compelled to hire Mlle Micheline Barnardini (b 1927), then an exotic (ie not infrequently nude) dancer from the Casino de Paris.  For Mlle Barnardini even the skimpiest bikini was more modest than her usual professional lack of attire.  According to M Réard, his inspiration came when on a beach at St Tropez, he observed young ladies rolling up their bathing suits to get a better tan.

Model Adriana Fenice (b 1994) in olive green bikini.

Le Monde Illustré in August 1947 applied a little of their bourgeois intellectual thuggery in comparing the denuding of the surface of Bikini Atoll by the bomb’s blast wave with the near-elimination of flesh-covering material in the swimsuit:  “Bikini, ce mot cinglant comme l’explosion même...correspondait au niveau du vêtement de plage à un anéantissement de la surface vêtue; à une minimisation extrême de la pudeur”.  (Bikini, a word now of explosions, compares the effect of the state of the clothing at the beach to an annihilation of the dressed surface; an extreme minimization of modesty.)  Even then however it wasn't something all that novel, two-piece swimwear often seen since at least the 1930s and French fashion designer Jacques Heim (1899–1967) early in 1946 had staged a re-launch of his pre-war two-piece swimsuit which he named the Atome, (atoms then much in the public imagination as something very small yet possessing great power) advertising it as "the world's smallest bathing suit".  However, unlike Réard's creation, it covered the navel, most of the buttocks and more of the breasts, enabling M. Réard truthfully to claim the bikini was "smaller than the smallest bathing suit".  The rest is history.

The bikini and the land yacht

Land yachts: 1972 Imperial LeBaron two-door hardtop (left) and 1978 Chrysler New Yorker two-door hardtop (right).  Although even at the time derided by critics as wastefully absurd, for those inside they were a cosseting cocoon and for many that had much appeal.

The term “land yacht” came into use in the 1970s to describe the huge, luxury automobiles which the major US manufactures all produced and they were strong sellers in early Nixon-era America, surviving the first oil shock (1973-1974) to remain a profitable segment until late in the decade driven extinct by the government edict, the CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) dooming the breed.  The Cadillacs and Lincolns were the most emblematic and numerous of the breed but on the basis of length, at 235¼ inches (5975 mm), the 1973 Imperial was actually the biggest.  All were highly inefficient and, despite the dimensions, frequently were transport only for one or two although, once inside, passengers enveloped by leather or velour and the driving experience, although not fast by the standards of today was truly effortless, smooth and quiet.  So isolated from the outside world were occupants from that a frequent comment was they seemed “to float down the road”, hence the term “land yacht”.

Ford Australia advertisement for Landau (1974).  By the time of its release in August 1973, nobody else in Australia did make anything quite like it and the industry's consensus was Ford was welcome to the uncontested market sector.

In the US, the term “land yacht” tended to be applied derisively by those who disapproved of the excess, inefficiency and general environmental thuggery the ownership of such things was thought to convey.  It was only in the twenty-first century when they were close to a vanished species the term became almost affectionate as their dubious qualities meant they came to be thought charming nostalgia pieces.  While they were in production however, in promotional material, the manufacturers never called them “land yachts”, preferring words like “luxury” or “exclusive” but in Australia, Ford did run one such associative advertisement for its take on the land yacht: the Landau (manufacturer’s code JG70, 1973-1976).  The advertisement with juxtaposition of Landau and yacht ran in 1974 and there’s nothing to suggest the agency’s idea was anything other than wishing to associate the car with another product on the shopping lists of the rich (or at least the “lease list”, the tax accountant’s tending to provide clients with the “3F Rule” (“If it flies, floats or fornicates, rent or lease, don’t buy.”).  Still, unlike some other cars which might have appealed to the “yacht demographic”, once fitted with a tow bar, the Landau would have been better than many at towing a decent-sized boat.

1973 Ford Landau (front) and 1975 Ford LTD (rear).

The bright colors were not typical of the usually "formal" colors (white, navy blue, maroon etc) chosed by LTD & Landau buyers and only six Landaus were finished in Wild Violet (paint code Z, Shade 13305).  Most of the more lurid hues manufacturers offered during the early 1970s vanished from the color charts when lead was banned from paint, not returning until the next century when new chemical mixes were concocted to replicate what the lead did. 

With only some 1400 made, commercially, the Landau was impressively unsuccessful although the companion four door model (LTD) enjoyed not only solid sales but high profitability because, structurally, it was little more than an elongated Falcon laden with gorp (the word “bling” not then in use).  Dating from the late 1950s, the pleasing “gorp” was a re-purposing (as a noun & verb) by US car designers of the acronym GORP which stood for “granola, oats, raisins, peanuts”, a popular nutritional mix carried by hikers, bush-walkers and such (the designers' notion being the adding of a bit of every decorative thing).  In that spirit, like the LTD, the Landau gained lashings of velour or real leather, fake wood, hidden headlights, a coat of arms of dubious provenance, the novelty of a 24-hour analogue clock and a padded vinyl roof (one of the high points of 1970s fashion).

Ford LTD (P5 & P6) and Landau (ZG70) air-conditioning controls.

Actually, the padding was a really bad idea because the foam tended to trap moisture (especially in the country’s more tropical northern regions) and rust thus became inevitable.  On the Landau, the use of a vinyl roof was particularly cynical because it was cheaper to glue one on than it would have been properly to finish the “plugs” crudely welded in to reduce the size of the rear side windows, rendering a more “formal” roof-line.  Unwanted for years, the Landau is now a collectable and some owners have removed the vinyl roof and properly finished the metalwork beneath, greatly enhancing the aesthetics.  The LTD and Landau did though have some worthwhile features including four-wheel disc brakes (a first for Australia and they were world-class) and a set of aviation-style sliding controls for the air-conditioning, dismissed by some as “an affectation” but really quite fetching and a tactile pleasure.  Surprisingly, although built on the “compact” (in US terms) 111 inch (2819 mm) wheelbase rather than the full-sized platforms of the US land yachts which could have a wheelbase almost 18 inches (457 mm) longer, except in width, the Landau’s interior space was little different.  The dinosaurs of the 1970s however weren’t the first of the species, a bikini-themed US-French hybrid the MRCA (most recent common ancestor).  Despite also using nautical nomenclature, the "boat-tailed" roadsters of the inter-war years belong to a different genus.    

Land yacht: 1948 Le Yacht de la Route "Bikini" by Henri Chapron on the chassis of a 1937 Packard Super Eight.

Before in 1940 taking over his mother’s lingerie business, Louis Réard was an automobile engineer for Renault and one with a flair for publicity so to promote his new swimsuit, he in 1948 commissioned coach-builder Henri Chapron (1886-1971 and in the 1960s to become famous for his various lines of Citroën DS, DW & ID coupés & cabriolets) to build what he called Le Yacht de la Route (the yacht of the road).  Chapron’s design included an actual boat bow, a cabin with portholes, a mast from a yacht and a rear deck where models would pose in bikinis when the car was driven around France on promotional tours.

1937 Packard Super Eight with Formal Sedan coachwork (left) and a 1939 example of the sturdy chassis and straight-eight.  The big Packards of this era were the favored transport of comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), a fair judge of such things.  In the post-war years, Soviet engineers would reverse-engineer the Packard and produce a copy, a common practice the regime (mostly unlawfully) applied to aircraft, military weapons, electronics and much else.

Originally the "Bikini's" coachwork (perhaps "hull" might be a better word) was mounted on the chassis of a 1948 Hotchkiss Artois but its 3.5 litre (212 cubic inch) straight-six proved inadequate to propel to heavy load so it was swapped for that of a 1937 Packard Super Eight, the torquey 6.3 litre (384 cubic inch) straight-eight able effortlessly to cope.  It may have been someone in Detroit was smitten by the portholes because in 1956 a pair appeared (as a “delete option”) on the 1956 Ford Thunderbird’s fibreglass hard-top.  On the Thunderbird they were added to enhance rearward visibility but by the 1970s, reshaped first as ovals before assuming other shapes, they were re-named “opera windows” and became an almost inevitable addition to Detroit's land yachts.

Model Adriana Fenice in another bikini, created ad-hoc with a neon-green & black combo.  Note the difference in the fabric of the two pieces, the mix-and-match "ensemble" approach often taken by bikini-wearers because when, sold in sets, the size which accommodates one part, isn't always a good fit for another.

The curiously named "Bikini State" was the system by which an alert state was defined by the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) to warn of non-specific forms of threat, including civil disorder, terrorism or war.  Introduced in 1970, it was in use until 2006 and the MoD's official position has always be "bikini" was a code name selected at random by a computer; those who accept that story are presumably not familiar with the long military tradition of providing misleading answers, either to amuse themselves or confuse others.  There were five Bikini alert states: (1) White which meant essentially there was no indication of a specific or general threat, (2) Black which referred to a situation in which there was heightened concern about internal or external threats, (3) Black Special which indicated an increased likelihood of the conditions which triggered a Black Alert, (4) Amber which confirmed the existence of specific threats or the higher probability of entering a state of armed conflict and (5) Red which covered everything from a specific threat (including the target(s) to actually being in a state of war and at risk of a nuclear strike.  The need for a system which was better adapted to providing advice to the whole population rather than just the military & civil service was acknowledged after the 9/11 attacks in the US when it was recognised the threat environment had shifted since the Cold War and that the whole country should be regarded as "target rich" in much the way the security services treated Northern Ireland.  Accordingly in 2006, the Government adopted a new five layer system: (1) Low, last seen in the brief, optimistic era between the end of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland (1998) and the week of the 9/11 attacks, (2) Moderate which is about as close to "normal" as anyone now reasonably aspires to achieves and suggests folk should be "alert but not alarmed", (3) Substantial which indicates some event is likely, (4) Severe which indicates a heightened level of threat beyond the substantial and (5) Critical which suggests there is intelligence to indicate an imminent attack and security precaution should be elevated to their highest level.

Many countries have similar systems in place although most maintain different arrangements for civilian & military purposes, the latter always tied to specific protocols and procedures.  Some are trans-nation such as those used by the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and five-layers used to be the preferred option although this has changed.  In the US the military's DEFCON (defense readiness condition) uses five color-coded levels ranging effecting from "stand easy" to "global thermo-nuclear war is imminent or already begun".  The now defunct civilian Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS; 2002-2011) used a five-level approach but it was much criticized and since 2011 the US has used National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) which is event specific and defined by start and end dates, rather than maintaining the country in some nominal state of alert.

Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), a first century AD mosaic in Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily.  For whatever reason, it was a later addition, added atop what's thought to be a conventional geometric mosaic.  

The bikini might in the popular imagination be thought a symbol of Western freedom and something which liberated women from the demands they remain as invisible as possible but the concept of the garment is truly ancient.  Some 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Sicilian town of Piazza Armerina lie the ruins of what would once have been the impressive Roman villa, Villa Romana del Casale.  A UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site thought to have been built early in the fourth century AD, it contains one of the most extraordinary collections of ancient Roman mosaics, all thought the works of African artists and artisans.  One creation which has proved of great interest is that which sits in what is popularly known as the Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), depicting ten women, nine of whom wearing something in the style of two-piece bathing suits, archeologists suggesting the bottom being a loincloth made cloth or leather and known as a subligaculum, a scanty version of the male perizoma worn both as underwear and sometimes by athletes and slaves.  It was a design which is thought to have spread throughout the empire because archaeologists in Britain discovered during the dig of an old well a leather “thong” that was found to date from shortly after the time of Christ.  Its size and shape was exactly that of a modern bikini bottom and it’s now an exhibit at the Museum of London.

The top part was essentially a breast-band, known also to have been worn in Greece where the garment was known as a mastodeton or apodesmos (a strophium to the Romans).  In deference to comfort, mastodetons are thought often to have been made from linen and they were in essence the "sports bras" of Antiquity.  The contribution to fashion is one thing but what interested historians was that the women are clearly participating in sports, their “bikinis” activewear and not swimwear.  Some of the activities are ambiguous but it’s obvious some are running, another is in the throes of throwing a discus while two are engaged in some form of ball sport.  Interestingly, the ball is multi-colored but whether this reflected the nature of sporting equipment in Antiquity or was a piece of artistic license isn’t known.  Of political interest are the young ladies with crowns of roses and palm-fronds, traditionally the prizes awarded to those victorious in athletic competitions so the events were, to some degree, apparently structured.  It’s a myth women in the Roman Empire were always banned from sport although there were restrictions in that men and women competed separately and while, in Athenian tradition, men generally competed naked (something outside the home not permitted for women), the ancient “bikinis” were a compromise which afforded comfort while avoiding unduly exciting any man whose glance might fall upon female flesh.

That the US nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll made the swimsuit a world-wide success was noted by one Australian entrepreneur who, after the British conducted their own tests in October 1952 in the Montebello Archipelago, some 60 miles (100 km) off the north-west coast of Western Australia, attempted to promote his own variation: the Montebello suit (actually a bikini under another name.  The tests, known as Operation Hurricane, came about because the British, fearful of (1) a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, (2) a possibly resurgent Germany and (3) a one-day un-interested United States, were anxious to possess their own independent nuclear deterrent.  The British project proved a success and the UK to this day maintains a boutique-sized but strategically significant array of nuclear weapons and a delivery system which permits them to be aimed at any target on the planet.  The Montebello swimsuit of the early 1950s was not a success but the name has be revived and bikinis using the name are now available.