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Santiago Muñoz Machado and Minister Pedro Duque present the great work in progress and ancient utopia of the language academies: the history of their lexicon.
What is the Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Language? A practical example: the common name bikini appeared written for the first time in Spanish in 1946, in a newspaper in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, but not with the meaning of a two-piece bathing suit, but with that of a big bang. In the summer of that same year, the United States Army began its first round of atomic tests and bombed Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean 71 times. In 1947, one year after the explosions, the French designer Louis Réard patented the name, "bikini" and it appeared in the ABC Newspaper as beach wear.
In 1960, the men's bikini was first discussed in writing and in the following years new uses appeared that were variations on its textile/beach meaning. The funny thing is that in 1980 the use of the word bikini as a mixed sandwich was documented for the first time in Spanish, referring to the Sala Bikini, a nightclub in Barcelona, ??now a disco, which offered ham and cheese sandwiches to their customers.
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