Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to grasp, enclose."

It forms all or part of: Asgard; carol; choir; choral; chorale; choric; chorister; chorus; cohort; cortege; court; courteous; courtesan; courtesy; courtier; curtilage; curtsy; garden; garth; gird; girdle; girt; girth; -grad; hangar; Hilda; Hildegard; Hortense; horticulture; jardiniere; kindergarten; Midgard; orchard; Terpsichore; Utgard; yard (n.1) "patch of ground around a house."

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit ghra- "house;" Albanian garth "hedge;" Greek khortos "pasture;" Phrygian -gordum "town;" Latin hortus "garden;" Old Irish gort "field," Breton garz "enclosure, garden;" Old English gyrdan "to gird," geard "fenced enclosure, garden," German Garten "garden." Lithuanian gardas "pen, enclosure," Old Church Slavonic gradu "town, city," and Russian gorod, -grad "town, city" belong to this group, but linguists dispute whether they are independent developments or borrowings from Germanic.

Middle English bigirden, from Old English begyrdan "to gird, clothe; surround, fortify;" see be- + gird (v.). Related: Begirt.

1560s, from en- (1) "in" + gird (v.). Related: Engirt; engirded.

"main supporting wooden beam that carries flooring," 1610s, agent noun from gird, on notion of something that "holds up" something else. Used of iron bridge supports from 1853.

c. 1400 as alternative form of gird; also past tense and past participle of gird.

c. 1300, "belt around a horse's body," from Old Norse gjorð "girdle, belt, hoop," from Proto-Germanic *gertu- (cf Gothic gairda "girdle"), from the same source as girdle and gird. Sense of "measurement around an object" first recorded 1640s.

1520s, from under + gird (v.). Related: Undergirded; undergirding.

Old English ongyrde, from un- (2) "opposite of" + gird (v.). Similar formation in Middle Dutch ontgorden, Old High German ingurten, German entgürten. Related: Ungirded; ungirding.