Beijing bikini
- noun
- Slang
:
bikini de Pekín
- During the hot summer months, many men adopt the Beijing bikini to cool off.
Examples
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Some cities have tried to ban the Beijing bikini on public transport.
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The sight of the Beijing bikini is common in parks on humid afternoons.
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During summer, many men in Beijing sport a Beijing bikini.
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I saw several guys wearing Beijing bikinis at the park.
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During the hot summer months, many men adopt the Beijing bikini to cool off.
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The sight of the Beijing bikini is common in parks on humid afternoons.
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During summer, many men in Beijing sport a Beijing bikini.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Beijing + bikini
The constituent 'bikini' evokes revealing clothing and 'Beijing' marks a local/regional variant, so a learner who knows both words could infer the term relates to body-exposure in Beijing. However, the precise practice—men rolling up shirts to expose their stomachs—is a culture-specific slang extension and not fully predictable from the parts, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The expression Beijing bikini is a joking name from Beijing for men who roll up their shirts to show their stomachs in hot weather. People think of the small strip of bare belly like a tiny bikini, so the phrase means this way of dressing 'to cool off'.
