Words of the decade

Apartheid: derived from Afrikaans for "separateness", the policy of segregating people of European descent from the non-European…

Apartheid: derived from Afrikaans for "separateness", the policy of segregating people of European descent from the non-European was introduced in South Africa in 1948.

Bikini: the French coined the phrase, apparently seeing parallels between the US atom bomb test on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in July 1946 and the explosive effect of the new two-piece swimsuit on males

Biro: a trade name registered in Britain in 1947

Flying saucer: in a climate of postwar fear, people in the US started seeing strange things in the sky