Begirded

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Encircled or surrounded tightly, as if with a belt or band
2. Closely encompassed on all sides by something, like a girdle wrapping around
3. To be completely enclosed or bounded by an object or line

Etymology: "Begirded" is the past tense and past participle of "begird," which in Old English meant "to gird, clothe, surround, fortify." The original "gird" carried the sense of fastening a belt or girdle around the waist, so to gird something was to bind it with a strap or band. Old English speakers added the prefix "be-," which intensified the action, so to begird a thing was to wrap it fully around. The verb reached English from Middle English "begirden," itself descended from the Old English "begyrdan," and its roots run back to Proto-Germanic, where "bi-" and "gurdijaną" combined. German and Gothic cognates, "begurtjan" and "bigairdan," show the same pairing of prefix and "gird" across the Germanic languages, which suggests the word was already well established in the common ancestor of those tongues.

Synonyms: encircled, surrounded, enclosed, wrapped, bound