girth

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gerth, also girth and garth,^[2] borrowed from Old Norse gjǫrð (“girdle, girth, hoop”),^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} from Proto-Germanic *gerdō.^[1][10][5] The Middle English Dictionary attributes the later vowel to the influence of Middle English girdel (Old English gyrdel), now girdle.^[2] Related forms are Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌳𐌰 (gairda, “girdle”),^{[3][5][6][11]} Middle Dutch gherde (“belt”),^[6][10][12] Middle Low German gorde and Old High German gurt,^[12] and the Old Norse word lives on in Swedish gjord and Danish gjord.^[3] The OED groups it with garth, gird and girdle, formed from different grades of the same root,^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary places it under the root Proto-Indo-European *gher-.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A belt or strap round the body of a horse or other animal, holding a saddle or load on its back: about 1300 in Etymonline, and probably before 1300 in Barnhart, who finds it earlier still in the occupational name Gerthmakere.^[4][12] The OED's first quotation for this sense is from Langland's Piers Plowman (1377); its earliest record of the word, from a Durham roll of about 1356, is of a hoop for a barrel.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a gerth was both a horse's strap and a hoop for a barrel, keg or tub, and compounds such as gerth makere and gerth web were in use;^[2] the hoop sense died out after 1483.^[3] The sense "measurement round something roughly circular", such as a body or a tree trunk, is first recorded in John Evelyn's Sylva, dated 1644 in the OED, the 1640s in Etymonline and 1664 in Barnhart.^[3][4][12] The verb, at first "to encircle", is recorded from before 1500, and "to fit a horse with a girth" from 1580.^[3] From 1830 the noun also named the part of a horse's body where the girth is fastened, and since 1871 it has been used figuratively of anything that encircles.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the band by which the saddle is fixed upon the horse".^[14] In Scots, to slip the girths meant to tumble down, like a pack-horse's load when its girths give way.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a strap round a horse's belly to hold the saddle.^[4][12]
• c. 1356 – a hoop for a barrel (obsolete after 1483).^[3]
• before 1500 – verb, to encircle or surround.^[3]
• 1580 – verb, to fit a horse with a girth.^[3]
• 1644 – the measurement round something roughly circular, as a body or tree trunk.^[3][4] Barnhart dates it 1664.^[12]
• 1830 – the part of a horse's body where the girth is fastened.^[3]
• 1871 – figuratively, something that encircles.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The distance around something, such as a tree trunk or a person's waist; circumference.^[16][6][3]
2. Size or bulk, especially a person's stoutness: His girth had grown since he retired.^[16]
3. A strap or band passed under the belly of a horse or other animal to hold a saddle or pack on its back.^[6][16][3]

Verb

1. To fasten a girth on a horse, or to secure a saddle with one; often with up.^[16][6][3]
2. To encircle or surround.^[16][6][3]
3. To measure the girth of, as in estimating an animal's weight.^[6][3]

Related words

• gird
• girdle
• garth
• girt

Usage notes

In Scots, girth was also an obsolete form of grith, a sanctuary or place of refuge.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins