Etymology

Always derived from ON, cp. OIcel gjǫrð, gerð ‘belt, girdle; waist; saddle girth; hoop (on a barrel, etc.), headband, band on a helmet’ < PGmc *gerđō, cp. Go giardia ‘belt, girdle’, MDu gherde ‘girdle’. The root is attested widely in Gmc, but only the zero grade occurs in OE, e.g. gyrdan (v.) ‘to gird’ (< *gurđjan-, cp. OIcel gyrða ‘gird oneself’, OHG gurten, OFris unegert ‘unbegird’; derived from the n. represented by OHG gurt ‘girdle’) and gyrdel (n.) ‘girdle, belt, zone’ (< *gurđilaz, cp. OIcel gyrðill, OFris gerdel, MDu gurdel, OHG gurtil). A PGmc st. v. *gerđan- is reconstructed on the basis of Go pp. bi-gaurdans ‘to gird’. The presence of the fricative is a good test of loan here (in contrast to e.g. burþe (n.)) because there are no attested WGmc forms with a fricative.

PGmc Ancestor

*gerđō

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

gjǫrð, gerð ‘belt, girdle; waist; saddle girth; hoop (on a barrel, etc.), headband, band on a helmet’
(ONP gjǫrð, gerð (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far gjørð, Icel gjörð, Norw gjord, Dan gjord, Sw gjord

OE Cognate

cp. gyrdan (v.) ‘to gird’, gyrdel (n.) ‘girdle, belt, zone’

Phonological and morphological markers

ON fricative /&eth;/ &lt; PGmc */&eth;/

Summary category

A1c

Attestation

MED’s first citation comes from the (1288-9) Leet R.Norwich in Seld.Soc.5 and most, but not all, citations from the centuries following come from N and E sources.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

WA 5536

Bibliography

MED gerth (n.)[ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED18455&egs=all&egdisplay=open], OED girth (n.1)[ http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/78514?], HTOED , Bj. 152, de Vries gjǫrð (1), Mag. gjörð (1), Orel *gerđō, Kroonen *gerdan, Seebold Gerd-*a