"Bath-ing""

[Lara]

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> A friend of mine from Ipswich, England, once told me that, in the
> Mother Country,  "bathing" [beiDIN] no longer refers to taking a bath.
> Rather, it refers to spending time at the beach. If you want - or,
> rather, if one wishes - to refer to taking a literal bath, the verb to
> use is "bahthing" [baTIN].

I'm Western Australian, but we're fairly heavily BrEng influenced.
Fooling about in the ocean is still "swimming" here, but the garment is
usually called "bathers". Perhaps a little out of date but still around
is "bathing suit".

In New South Wales, they wear their swimmers or a cossie (pronounced
"kozzy", from "swimming costume"); some other places in the country,
togs.

I won't go into detail on budgiesmugglers and lollycatchers ...

Lara