Camisole

Camisole (pronounced kam-uh-sohl)

(1) A short garment worn underneath a sheer bodice to conceal the underwear; also called cami (pronounced kam-ee).

(2) A woman's dressing jacket or short negligée.

(3) A sleeved jacket or jersey once worn by men (now obsolete but occasionally revived as a catwalk novelty).

(4) As camisole de force, a straitjacket with long sleeves (mostly historic references).

1816: From the French and the Old Occitan (also called Old Provençal) camisola, the construct being camis(a) + -ola; the Late Latin camīsa (shirt) was also the source of chemise and the Latin suffix -ola was added to a noun to form a (sometimes pejorative) diminutive of that noun; a variant was the Late Latin camisia (shirt or nightgown).  The thread was well-known in romance languages, the Old Portuguese camisa (shirt) was from the Late Latin camisia (shirt), from Transalpine Gaulish (of Germanic origin) from the Proto-Germanic hamiþiją (clothes, shirt, skirt), from the primitive Indo-European ḱam- (cover, clothes).  The modern use meaning a “sleeveless undergarment for women” dates from circa 1900 but for most of the late nineteen the century it generally meant "straitjacket” (a restraint for lunatics). Camisole is a noun & verb and camisoled is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is camisoles.

Camisole de force: The straitjacket

Crooked Hillary Clinton in Camisole de force (digitally altered photo).

Although ad-hoc wearable physical restraints had existed long before, the camisole de force (straitjacket) was invented circa 1772 by Irish doctor David MacBride (1726-1778), the more romantic story of it being a creation of a Monsieur Guilleret, a tapestry maker at Bicêtre Hospital, apparently a myth.  The basic concept endures to this day although they are now less used, having largely been supplanted by camisoles chimiques (or neuroleptics (a class of psychotropic drugs used to treat psychosis)).  The only fundamental change in design is that modern camisoles de force are made with sleeves, the early types restraining the arms directly under the fabric were found to be most uncomfortable.

Camisole de force on the catwalk: Straitjacket chic by Gucci and others.

Catwalks were once a place where fashion existed for fashion's sake and while there could be social or political implications in what was worn, the messaging usually had to be some sort of overt threat to the establishment for much of a protest to be raised.  However, we live now in more sensitive times and designers have to be aware of factors as diverse as religion, ethnicity, skin color, sexual orientation, age, body mass index (BMI) and the seemingly all-encompassing "cultural appropriation".  Gucci recently had to withdraw from sale a jumper (US$890, Stg£715) after critics found it too reminiscent of blackface minstrels, the connection being the built-in half-balaclava with knitted plump red lips.  That fixed, the fashion house was then accused of cultural appropriation because one of their headpieces (US$790, Stg£635) too closely resembled a Sikh turban.   To clarify the extent of the sin, the US-based Sikh Coalition issued a statement: "The Sikh turban is not just a fashion accessory, but it's also a sacred religious article of faith."

Madness (an now unfashionable word banned in polite company; the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) recommending "mental disorder" or "psychiatric disorder") may also be on fashion's banned list after Ayesha Tan-Jones (b 1993, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns) staged a non-oral, verbal protest while on the catwalk (they might prefer the less exploitative "runway") in the Gucci show at Milan Fashion Week 2019.  Tan-Jones and other models were dressed in white jumpsuits for the show (and it can't be long before even the use of white is declared "problematic"), some of which used the motif of the straitjacket.  On their hands, Tan-Jones had written the words "Mental health is not fashion", clearly not accepting Gucci's rationale the designs were meant to represent "how through fashion, power is exercised over life, to eliminate self-expression".  That has some linguistic tradition because women have in the past not infrequently described demands to be fashionable as "a straitjacket" but Tan-Jones presumably would prefer the notion remain a simile rather than a publicity stunt.

Ayesha Tan-Jones on the catwalk, Milan Fashion Week, September 2019. 

After the show, Tan-Jones issued their own statement, writing "Straitjackets are a symbol of a cruel time in medicine when mental illness was not understood, and people's rights and liberties were taken away from them, while they were abused and tortured in the institution.  It is in bad taste for Gucci to use the imagery of straitjackets and outfits alluding to mental patients, while being rolled out on a conveyor belt as if a piece of factory meat."  That was followed up with another post which added they, along with some of the other models in the show, were donating to mental health charities a portion (% not mentioned) of the modeling fees paid by Gucci.  "Many of the other Gucci models who were in the show felt just as strongly as I did about this depiction of straitjackets, and without their support I would not have had the courage to walk out and peacefully protest" they said.  In response, the fashion house didn't address the substantive issued raised but did confirm straitjacket chic was just "...a statement for the fashion show and will not be sold", adding the line was intended as "...an antidote to the colourful designs in the rest of the Spring/Summer 2020 show".

Lindsay Lohan in camisole.

Acronym

Acronym (pronounced ak-ruh-nim)

In linguistics, a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words and pronounced as a separate word (and thus distinguished from an initialism in which the letters are pronounced separately; there are hybrids which combine both methods).

1943: The construct was acr- + -onym.  It was borrowed from the German Akronym, constructed from the Ancient Greek ἄκρον (ákron) (end, peak) + ὄνυμα (ónuma) (name), deconstructed as acr(o)- (high; beginning) +‎ -onym (name) and on the model of the German nouns Homonym & Synonym, first attested in German in the early 1900s and in English in 1940 (although the linguistic practice predated this by at least several decades).  The nouns acronymophilia (an abnormal liking or tendency for the use of acronyms), acronymania (the enthusiastic creation and use of acronyms) and acronymophobia (morbid fear or dread of acronyms) are deployed (usually) in humor.  Those exhibiting symptoms of acronymophilia or acronymania (beyond being a mere acronymist) are likely suffering from acronymitis.  Acronym is a noun & verb, acronymed is a verb, acronymic & acronymous are adjectives and acronymically is an adverb; the noun plural is acronyms.

The acronym is a one of a number of subsets in what are known as “curtailed words”.  Quite when the first acronym was used isn’t known but the habits of people do suggest it’s likely something ancient and there are folk etymologies which offer acronymic expansions for common words including “fuck” “posh” & “shit” but they’re all undocumented and the earliest known use in English was a form of the Arabic أبجد (ʔabjad), the term for the traditional ordering of the Arabic script (from the first four letters: أ (ʔ), ب (b), ج (j), د (d)).  It was the twentieth century in which the acronym multiplied, earlier antipodean contributions including ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) which soon became the word Qantas, an unusual example in English of a “q” not being followed by a “u”.  Such words do appear in English language texts but they tend to be foreign borrowings including (1) qat (or khat) (a plant native to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, often chewed for its stimulant effects, (2) qi (a term from Chinese philosophy referring to life force or energy), qibla (the direction Muslims face when praying, towards the Kaaba in Mecca and (4) qiviut (the soft under-wool of the musk-ox, valued when making warm clothing).

Other acronyms followed ANZAC but it was the upsurge in military activity during World War II (1939-1945) which saw the creation of literally thousands, some to endure, some to be rendered obsolete by circumstances or changes in technology and some genuine one-offs such as PLUTO (Pipeline under the ocean and originally P.L.U.T.O.).  PLUTO really should have been PLUTC because the many lines ran on the floor of the English Channel between England & France as a way of pumping fuel to the beachhead established by the D-Day landings (6 Jun 1944) but PLUTC obviously had little appeal so PLUTO it was.  While a clever idea, problems with the couplings meant the volumes achieved never came close to reaching what was theoretically possible.  The terms acronym, abbreviation and initialism are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings:

Acronym: (a general term for a shortened form of a word or phrase): An acronym is a type of abbreviation where the initial letters of a phrase are taken to form a new word (or one which duplicates an existing word and, not uncommonly, an earlier acronym) which is pronounced as one would a single word (although in commercial use, the pronunciation can be non-standard).  Examples of well known acronyms include “NASA” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), “Laser” (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and “UNESCO” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization”.

Abbreviation (a general term for a shortened form of a word or phrase): An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase used to represent the full version.  Abbreviations can include acronyms and initialisms, but they can also be simple clippings, truncations or contractions and common examples include “Dr” (Doctor), “Prof” (Professor) and “Thu” (Thursday).

Initialism (An abbreviation where each letter is pronounced separately): An initialism is specific type of abbreviation formed from the first letters of a phrase, but unlike acronyms, each letter is pronounced separately.  Well-known initialisms include “CIA” (Central Intelligence Agency), “UAE” (United Arab Emirates) and “WHO” (World Health Organization).

Leslie Nielsen (1926-2010) ) in one of his muddles as President Harris, addressing the General Assembly (GA) of the United Nations (UN), treating an initialism as an acronym, Scary Movie 4 (2006).

The WHO is an example of the way in which the oral use of acronyms, abbreviations & initialisms evolves by way of practice and habit rather than defined rules or convention.  Obviously, in speech, once could speak of “the who” but it’s never done, the name always expressed in full which is most among the notoriously lazy speakers of the English language who tend usually to prefer the shortest form.  Perhaps it’s felt there could be some ambiguity using the word “who” for such a purpose although that seems a thin argument and it may be there was a sense “the who” might be thought flippant although initialisms are common replacements for formal terms; HMG (his (or her) Majesty’s government) is a standard in Whitehall and Westminster while JPII & JP2 routinely appeared in Vatican documents to refer to John Paul II (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005).  Sometimes, the reason dictating the choice between spelling out the letters or forming a word is obvious:  The Bougainville Revolutionary Army was an armed secessionist movement formed in 1988 by some inhabitants of Bougainville Island who sought independence from Papua New Guinea (commonly referred to as PNG) and the group was always spoken of as the initialism the “bee-ah-eh” rather than the “Bra”, the latter definitely inappropriate.  By contrast, the armed Basque separatist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (“Basque Homeland and Liberty” or “Basque Country and Freedom; active 1959-2018) was always used as an acronym (pronounced et-ah rather than ey-tuh).

The BRA and the bra, not to be confused: Francis Ona (b circa 1953–2005; Bougainville secessionist leader) with fighters from the BRA (Bougainville Revolutionary Army) (left) and Lindsay Lohan in demi-cup bra, Terry Richardson (b 1965) photo-shoot for Love Magazine, 2012.  Of the military formation, BRA is an acronym while as a abbreviation, under ISO 3166-1, it's the alpha-3 country code for Brazil.  Bra is also an abbreviation which has become an English noun; it was a clipping of brassiere, from the French brassière (in the sense it was used of a camisole-like garment).  The French brassière was a singular form which is why in English one buys "a bra" rather than the "pair of bras" one would expect on the model of "pair of spectacles", pair of gloves" etc.

Sometimes though there is inventiveness.  In 1964 the Ford Motor Company released a version of their 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) FE V8 which featured a then novel (for Detroit) single overhead camshaft.  In industry parlance such a configuration was a “SOHC” but there was no accepted way to pronounce that a stand-alone word so the slang became “cammer” but others saw the possibility in Sohc and decided it was the “sock” so it was both an initialism and an acronym.  Acronyms can also be confused with something else.  In July 1968, John Gorton (1911-2002; Australian prime-minister 1968-1971), conducting a press conference in Djakarta (now Jakarta), was asked a question about “…general SEATO attitudes…” (SEATO was the South East Asian Treaty Organisation, a regional security arrangement (which included the UK & USA); it was created in 1954 but had become moribund years before its dissolution in 1977) to which he replied “Who’s this General Seato?”  The tale is not believed apocryphal.

There is no universal convention (an certainly no “rule”) about whether acronyms are written in upper case (NATO; UNESCO), lower case (radar, scuba) or camel case (a combination of both) (ChiPs) and the best advice is probably to follow to practice of the manufacturer, institution etc or follow one’s preferred style guide.  Quite how these practices evolve varies with the acronym, the most significant influence apparently the subjective sense of how anacronymic they’re perceived to have become and there’s also some evidence of regionalism; historically the US style guides tended to recommend all upper case for pronounced acronyms of four or fewer letters (NATO) while in the UK there was a preference to use the conventions of standard English (Nato) but the such is the US influence on the language that the upper case form is becoming more dominant.  Acronyms formed from beginning syllables are sometimes written in camel case (EpiPen) which appals some but in many cases they’re registered trademarks and that dictates what is correct; in the IT industry the mix of upper & lower case in all sorts of words has for decades been prevalent and such is the apparent randomness that the mix can’t be predicted.  Often “minor” words (“of”; “the”; “and” et al) are represented in lower case but this is not universal so “Out of Order” might appear either as “OOO” of “OoO”.  One thing which does seem to thankfully (mostly) to have vanished is the full stop (period) between letters; U.S.A. demanding a pointless additional three keystrokes.

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).

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 & proper noun; the noun plural is bikinis. 

Proliferation; variations on the theme of bikini

Bikinis: Lindsay Lohan with former special friend Samantha Ronson (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.  Thus far seen have been:

Monokini (a one-piece swimsuit)

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

Trikini (a type swimsuit which uses three, strategic-placed fabric triangles)

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)

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 attached by strings that is scantier and more revealing than a regular bikini)

Sidekini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the side-boob effect)

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 (s swimsuit with a higher-profile bottom)

Poligrill's helpful bikini identification chart.

Louis Réard (1896-1984) was a French engineer who took over his mother's lingerie business and the bathing ensemble he designed debuted 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.  Although it was suggested he choose the name because an exploding A-bomb was his preferred simile for the effect on men, 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.  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 Mademoiselle Micheline Barnardini (b 1927), then an exotic (ie nude) dancer from the Casino de Paris.  For Mlle Barnardini even the skimpiest bikini was more modest than her usual professional lack of attire.   

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.

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

The term “land yacht” came into use in the 1970s to describe the truly huge luxury automobiles which the major US manufactures all produced for most of the decade before emission control legislation and fuel-efficiency standards doomed the breed.  The Cadillacs and Lincolns were the most emblematic 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, were frequently comfortable transport only for two although once inside they were enveloped by leather or velour and the driving experience, although not fast by the standards of today (or even years gone by), was truly effortless, smooth and quiet.  So isolated were the occupants from the outside environment that a frequent comment was they seemed “to float down the road”, hence the term “land yacht”.  The dinosaurs of the 1970s however weren’t the first of the breed.  Before in 1940 taking over his mother’s lingerie business Louis Réard was an automobile engineer and one with a flair for publicity so he commissioned coach-builder Henri Chapron (1886-1971 and in the 1960s to become famous for his line of Citroën DS & 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 taken around France on promotional tours.  Originally the coachwork 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 to that of a 1937 Packard Super Eight, the 6.3 litre (384 cubic inch) straight-eight easily able to cope.

Model Adriana Fenice (b 1994) in bikini.

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 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 though 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.  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.

Knickers

Knickers (pronounced nik-erz)

(1) Loose-fitting short trousers gathered in at the knees.

(2) A bloomers-like undergarment worn by women.

(3) A general term for the panties worn by women.

(4) In product ranges, a descriptor of certain styles of panties, usually the short-legged underpants worn by women or girls.

(5) As the slang “to get one's knickers in a twist”, to become flustered or agitated (mostly UK, Australia & New Zealand).

(6) In slang, a mild expression of annoyance (archaic).

1866: A clipping of knickerbockers (the plural and a special use of knickerbocker).  The use is derived from the short breeches worn by Diedrich Knickerbocker in George Cruikshank's illustrations of Washington Irving's (1783-1859) A History of New York (1809), published under the pen-name Dietrich Knickbocker.  The surname Knickerbocker (also spelled Knikkerbakker, Knikkerbacker, and Knickerbacker) is a American creation, based on the names of early Dutch early settlers of New Netherland, thought probably derived from the Dutch immigrant Harmen Jansen van Bommel(l), who went variously by the names van Wy(y)e, van Wyekycback(e), Kinnekerbacker, Knickelbacker, Knickerbacker, Kinckerbacker, Nyckbacker, and Kynckbacker.  The precise etymology is a mystery, speculations including a corruption of the Dutch Wyekycback, the Dutch knacker (cracker) + the German Bäcker (or the Dutch bakker (baker)), or the Dutch knicker (marble (toy)) + the German Bäcker (or the Dutch bakker).  Aside from the obvious application (of or relating to knickerbockers), it was in the US used attributively as a modifier, referencing the social class with which the garment was traditionally associated; this use is now listed as archaic.

Men in knickerbockers.

Washington Irving was an American short-story writer and diplomat, most remembered today as the author of Rip Van Winkle (1819).  Although the bulk of his work was that of a conventional historian, his early writing was satirical, many of his barbs aimed at New York’s high society and it was Irving who in 1807 first gave NYC the nickname "Gotham" (from the Anglo-Saxon, literally “homestead where goats are kept”, the construct being the Old English gāt (goat) +‎ hām (home)).  The name Diedrich Knickerbocker he introduced in 1809 in A History of New York (the original title A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty).  A satire of local politics and personalities, it was also an elaborate literary hoax, Irving through rumor and missing person advertisements creating the impression Mr Knickerbocker had vanished from his hotel, leaving behind nothing but a completed manuscript.  The story captured the public imagination and, under the Knickerbocker pseudonym, Irving published A History of New York to critical and commercial success.  The name Diedrich Knickerbocker became a nickname for the Manhattan upper-class (later extended to New Yorkers in general) and was adopted by the New York Knickerbockers basketball team (1845-1873), the name revived in 1946 for the team now part of the US National Basketball League although their name usually appears as the New York Knicks.  The figurative use to describe New Yorkers of whatever status faded from use early in the twentieth century.  Knickerbocker was of course a real name, one of note the US foreign correspondent HR Knickerbocker (1898–1949) who in 1936 was a journalist for the Hearst Press, accredited to cover the Spanish Civil War.  Like many foreign reporters, his work made difficult by the military censors who, after many disputes, early in 1937 deported him after he’d tried to report the retreat of one of the brigades supplied by the Duce with the words “The Italians fled, lock, stock and barrel-organ”.

For designers, conventional knickers can be an impediment so are sometimes discarded: Anja Rubik, Met Gala 2012.  Note JBF hair-style and fine hip-bone definition.

Knickers dates from 1866, in reference to loose-fitting pants for men worn buckled or buttoned at the waist and knees, a clipping of knickerbockers, used since 1859 and so called for their because of their resemblance to the trousers of old-time Dutchmen in George Cruikshank's (1792-1878) illustrations in the History of New York.  A now extinct derivation was the Scottish nicky-tam (garter worn over trousers), dating from 1911, a shortened, colloquial form, the construct being knickers + the Scottish & northern English dialect taum, from Old Norse taumr (cord, rein, line), cognate with the Old English team, the root sense of which appears to be "that which draws".  It was originally a string tied by Scottish farmers around rolled-up trousers to keep the legs of them out of the dirt (in the style of the plus-fours once associated with golf, so-named because they were breeches with four inches of excess material which could hang in a fold below the fastening beneath the knee, the plus-four a very similar style to the classic knickerbocker).  The word “draws” survives in Scots-English to refer to trousers in general.  It also had a technical use in haberdashery, describing a linsey-woolsey fabric with a rough knotted surface on the right side which was once a popular fabric for women's dresses.

Cami-knickers, 1926, Marshalls & Snelgrove, Oxford Street, London.

The New York garment industry in 1882 adopted knickers to describe a "short, loose-fitting undergarment for women" apparently because of the appeal of the name.  By 1884, the word had crossed the Atlantic and in both France and the UK was used to advertise the flimsier of women’s “unmentionables” and there have long many variations (although there’s not always a consistency of style between manufacturers) including camiknickers, French knickers, the intriguingly-named witches' knickers & (the somewhat misleading) no knickers.  From the very start, women’s knickers were, as individual items, sold as “a pair” and there’s no “knicker” whereas the singular form knickerbocker, unlike the plural, may only refer to a single garment.  In the matter of English constructed plurals, the history matters rather than any rule.  Shoes and socks are obviously both a pair because that’s how they come but a pair of trousers seems strange because it’s a single item.  That’s because modern "trousers" evolved from the Old Scots Trews, Truis & Triubhas and the Middle English trouzes & trouse which were separate items (per leg) and thus supplied in pairs, the two coverings joined by a breechcloth or a codpiece.  A pair of spectacles (glasses) is similar in that lens were originally separate (al la the monocle), things which could be purchased individually or as a pair.  The idea of a pair of knickers was natural because it was an adaptation of earlier use for the men’s garments, sold as “pairs of knickerbockers” or “pairs of knickers”.

Lindsay Lohan in cage bra and knickers, Complex Magazine photoshoot, 2011.

The bra, like a pair of knckers, is designed obviously to accommodate a pair yet is described in the singular for reasons different again.  Its predecessor, the bodice, was often supplied in two pieces (and was thus historically referred to as “a pair of bodies” (and later “a pair of bodicies”)) and laced together but that’s unrelated to the way a bra is described: It’s a clipping of the French brassière and that is singular.  Brasserie entered English in the late nineteenth century although the French original often more closely resembled a chemise or camisole, the adoption in English perhaps influenced by the French term for something like the modern bra being soutien-gorge (literally, "throat-supporter") which perhaps had less appeal although it may be no worse than the more robust rehausseur de poitrine (chest uplifter) which offers more functionally still.  Being English, brassiere was soon shortened to bra and a vast supporting industry evolved.

Kiki de Montparnasse lace knickers, US$190 at FarFetch.