girth

Meanings

Noun

• A band passed under the belly of an animal, which holds a saddle or a harness saddle in place.
• The part of an animal around which the girth fits.
• One's waistline circumference, most often a large one.
• A small horizontal brace or girder.
• The distance measured around an object.
• The length of the shortest cycle in a graph.

Verb

• To bind as if with a girth or band.

Related

Similar words

• circumference
• cinch

Origin

• From Middle English girth, gerth, gyrth, from Old Norse gjǫrð, from Proto-Germanic *gerdō, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ-. Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌳𐌰, Icelandic gjörð. Also related to German Gurt, English gird, Albanian ngërthej.