בּוּרְקִינִי (burkini) — burkini

Etymology

The word בּוּרְקִינִי is a portmanteau — a blend of two words — coined in 2004 by Aheda Zanetti, an Australian fashion designer of Lebanese descent, as a brand name for the modest full-body swimsuit she began marketing that year. The word combines בּוּרְקָה (burqa, the full-body Islamic covering garment) with בִּיקִינִי (bikini, the minimal two-piece swimsuit). Zanetti later wrote in The Guardian: "When I named it the burkini I wasn't even thinking about the burqa. 'Burqa' was just a word to me — I grew up in Australia all my life. I needed to find a name quickly, and the burqa and the bikini are at opposite ends of the spectrum, so I combined them."

The burqa. Zanetti was correct that the burqa is not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran's instruction to women to cover themselves is phrased in terms of "adorning" modestly and covering their "charms except what is apparent" (Quran 24:31), with no specification of the head or face. Different Muslim communities developed different dress codes from this ambiguous verse. The full-body covering including the face — the burqa — developed primarily among Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. The word בֻּרְקַע (burqa) in its original meaning refers not to the garment itself but to a cloth divider, a partition or curtain. It was borrowed from Aramaic, derived from the root ב-ק-ע (meaning "to split" or "to divide") with the addition of a dissimilatory resh — the same structural pattern as Aramaic כּוּרְסָא (chair, from כֵּס). The word thus etymologically means something like "a split curtain."

The bikini. The bikini has a completely different — and rather dark — origin. In June 1946, French fashion designer Jacques Heim (a French Jew who had survived World War II in the French resistance) relaunched a two-piece swimsuit he had originally tried to market in 1932 as the "Atome" ("atom"), marketing it as "the world's smallest swimsuit." Automotive engineer Louis Réard saw this and went further — designing a suit that exposed the navel — and began selling it from July 5, 1946, as "smaller than the world's smallest swimsuit." He named it after Bikini Atoll. His timing was deliberate: on July 1, 1946 — just four days before he launched his suit — the United States had detonated an atomic bomb in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll, the first nuclear test since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosion received massive global press coverage, and Réard appropriated the name.

Bikini Atoll (Pikinni in Marshallese, from pik "surface" + ni "coconut" — a coconut-surfaced island) was the home of 167 residents, who had been displaced earlier that year when US military governor Ben Wyatt asked them to leave "for the good of mankind." The residents were moved to Rongerik Atoll, where they nearly starved before being relocated again. While its dispossessed inhabitants struggled, the atoll lent its name first to a nuclear test site, then to a two-piece swimsuit that became a symbol of freedom, then — via Zanetti's blend — to a garment representing its opposite.

Key Quotes

"כשקראתי לזה בורקיני, לא ממש חשבתי שזה בּוּרְקָה בשביל הים. בורקה הייתה רק מילה עבורי" — אהדה זנטי, The Guardian, 2016

"ואֱמור למאמינות כי תצנענה את מבטן ותשמורנה על תומת ערוותן, ולא תחשׂופנה את שׂכיות חמדתן, מלבד הנגלות שבהן" — הקוראן 24:31 (תרגום אורי רובין)

Timeline

• Aramaic origin: root ב-ק-ע + dissimilatory resh → בּוּרְקַע (a dividing curtain)
• Medieval Islamic period: burqa develops as full-body covering on Indian subcontinent
• 1932: Jacques Heim attempts to market two-piece swimsuit in France as "Atome" — fails
• July 1, 1946: US detonates atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands
• July 5, 1946: Louis Réard launches the "bikini" swimsuit, capitalizing on atomic bomb publicity
• 2004: Aheda Zanetti coins "burkini" in Australia; begins marketing modest swimsuit
• 2016: France attempts to ban the burkini on public beaches; global controversy erupts; word enters Hebrew discourse widely

Related Words

• בּוּרְקָה — burqa (the full-body Islamic covering garment)
• בִּיקִינִי — bikini (the minimal two-piece swimsuit; from Marshallese place name)
• צְנִיעוּת — modesty (the religious value underlying modest dress requirements)