776: gird and circle Jan 22, 2017

You may have noticed that terms relating to circles often have 'circ' somewhere in the word, which unsurprisingly comes from the Latin for 'circum' or 'circulus' ultimately meaning 'carry around'. There is, however, a Germanic equivalent to this, which still has some presence in Modern English. 'Gird', meaning 'encircle' but also 'strike' (though no one knows why for sure) comes from Old English 'gyrdan', and is related to Dutch other and German words, not to mention 'girdle' and 'girth'. It should be noted, however unsurprisingly, that the words that come from a Germanic root tend to be more bodily, and even feature in phrases like, 'gird one's loins', while those from Latin tend to be more formal.