waist
Definitions
General English
- noun the narrow part of the body between the bottom of the chest and the hips
- noun the part of a piece of clothing, e.g. a skirt, trousers or dress, that goes round the middle of your body
Construction
- The narrowest section of a column or similar building element.
Medical
- noun the narrow part of the body below the chest and above the buttocks
Origin & History of “waist”
Waist is something of a mystery word, but it is generally taken to denote etymologically ‘girth to which one has grown’. It is probably descended from an unrecorded Old English *wæst, which would have gone back to prehistoric Germanic *wakhs- ‘grow’, source of English wax ‘grow’ (as in wax and wane). Related forms which support this hypothesis include Icelandic vöxstr and Gothic wahstus, which mean ‘growth, size’.
