bathers

(swimsuit): An abbreviation of bathing costume. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “This does not explain the -ers.”)

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bathers

1. plural of bather
2. (Australia) A swimsuit; a bathing costume.
   • 2001, Laurene Kelly, The Crowded Beach‎, page 10:

     The bathers they wore looked sort of the same as now, but their hair was really different.

   • 2008, Lyn Aldred, Neptune's Fingers‎, page 10:

     No one here wore bathers. Both boys wore their homemade underpants, the brand name, ‘Sydney Flour’, emblazoned across the back, as old flour bags were not wasted, but recycled.

   • 2009, Jacqueline Ann Wharton, Freedom Through Adversity: Ten Steps to Overcoming a Troubled Mind‎, page 69:

     I was looking at a pair of bathers to buy and talking about the life of the bathers and how to extend their life.

(swimsuit): budgie smugglers, cozzie, Speedos

• bashert, berthas, betrash, breaths