You say "burkini" and I'll say "burqini"

[Laurence Horn]

A fairly new lexical item, either way.  The vote is close:  Google
offers 120,000 "burkini"s vs. 87,000 "burqini"s.  The reference is
transparent (but, one gathers, not *too* transparent).  Actually, as
blends go, this one is a bit misleading, to judge from the photos
available at various web sites, which are reminiscent of neither
burqas nor bikinis, but I guess that's what happens when such
differences are split.

As for antedates, if we ignore a wayward typo ("Burkini Faso"), the
first actual Nexis hits seem to have appeared a little over a year
ago (cf. "It's the burqini, an Islamic revolution in the pool",
Sydney Daily Telegraph, 3 Dec. 2005).  The Times, a bit late to the
swim party, published its first piece on this Islamic revolution (heh
heh) last Friday (Raymond Bonner, "Australian Muslims go for surf,
lifesaving and burqinis", 3/9/07).

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org