garter
pronunciation
How to pronounce garter in British English:
UK [ˈgɑ:tə(r)]
How to pronounce garter in American English:
US [ˈgɑrtə(r)]
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- Noun:
- a band (usually elastic) worn around the leg to hold up a stocking (or around the arm to hold up a sleeve)
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- Verb:
- fasten with or as if with a garter
Word Origin
- garter
- garter: [14] The ultimate source of garter was probably an unrecorded Gaulish word meaning ‘leg’ (related to Welsh gar ‘leg’). It was borrowed into Old French at some point and used as the basis of the noun garet, which (in relation to people) meant ‘place where the leg bends, knee’. From this in turn was derived Old French gartier ‘band just above or below the knee’, source of English garter.The British Order of the Garter dates, according to the medieval French chronicler Jean Froissart, from around 1344. The story of its origin, not recorded until over 250 years later and never authenticated, is that while the Countess of Salisbury was dancing with King Edward III, her garter fell off; the king picked it up and put it on his own leg, remarking somewhat cryptically in Anglo-French ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’ – ‘Shamed be he who thinks evil of it’, and named the order of knighthood which he founded after this very garter.
- garter (n.)
- "tie or fastening to keep a stocking in place on the leg," early 14c., from Old North French gartier "band just above or below the knee" (Old French jartier, 14c., Modern French jarretière), from garet/jaret "bend of the knee," perhaps from Gaulish (compare Welsh garr "leg"). Garter in reference to the highest order of knighthood (mid-14c.) is from the Order of the Garter, the earliest records of which are entirely lost, but which according to Froissart was established c. 1344 by Edward III, though the usual story of how it came about is late (1614) and perhaps apocryphal. Garter-snake (1775, U.S.) so called from resemblance to a ribbon. Garter belt attested by 1913.
- garter (v.)
- mid-15c., from garter (n.). Related: Gartered; gartering.
Example
- 1. The garter brides have had all kinds of weddings !
- 2. The garter brides say " go for it ! "
- 3. During a break , she hands me a copy of a lingerie catalog . Natalia is on almost every page ; only the colors and styles of the bras , corsets , and garter belts change .
- 4. I 'll be able to catch my mom 's garter without my hands .
- 5. One of our garter brides went to a baseball game , and she and her date each brought a friend .