girdle means that which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference. It carries an Arena rating of 1533, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, girdle ranks #632 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,233 of 17,135 for Most Malleable Words, #4,665 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #5,576 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
girdle is pronounced /ˈɡɝdl̩/.
Why “girdle” is a great word
A belt or cord worn around the waist, or a form-fitting undergarment designed to shape the torso and hips. From Middle English girdel, gerdel, gurdel, from Old English gyrdel, from Proto-West Germanic *gurdil, from Proto-Germanic *gurdilaz ("girdle, belt"), equivalent to gird ("to encircle") + -le (agent suffix). Unlike a "belt," which suggests a clasped band for utility or ornament, or a "corset," a rigid architecture of bone and lace meant to forge a new waist, a girdle is a subtler, more encompassing confinement. It is the monk’s simple rope of humility, the sleek mid-century sheath of elastic smoothing a silhouette, the firm but forgiving squeeze of morning cool against the skin—a quiet architecture of containment, the way we first learned to hold ourselves together by gentle insistence.
Etymology
From Middle English girdel, gerdel, gurdel, from Old English gyrdel, from Proto-West Germanic *gurdil, from Proto-Germanic *gurdilaz (“girdle, belt”), equivalent to gird + -le. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gäddel (“belt”), West Frisian gurdle, gurle, gurl (“belt”), Dutch gordel (“belt”), German Gürtel (“belt”), Yiddish גאַרטל (gartl, “belt”) (whence gartel, a doublet of girdle), Swedish gördel (“girdle”), Icelandic gyrðill (“girdle”).
noun
- That which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference.e.g.“the girdle of the world”
- A belt or sash at the waist, often used to support stockings or hosiery.e.g.“And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles” — 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 15:6:
- A garment used to hold the abdomen, hips, buttocks, and/or thighs in a particular shape.
- The line of greatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting.
- A thin bed or stratum of stone.
- The clitellum of an earthworm.
- The removal or inversion of a ring of bark in order to kill or stunt a tree.
verb
- To gird, encircle, or constrain by such means.e.g.“The Equator, as everyone knows, is an imaginary line or circle girdling the Earth half-way between the North and South poles.” — 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning, page 36:
- To kill or stunt a tree by removing or inverting a ring of bark.e.g.“The ordinary large reddish "hen hawks," which circle high above meadows, are doing great good to the farmer by feeding upon the mice and other creatures which steal his grain and girdle his trees.” — 1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 108:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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