Waisty

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a waist of a particular shape or size, often used in compounds to describe the middle part of a body or garment
2. Describing a person or garment with a waist that is narrow, thick, or otherwise shaped in a specified way
3. Used of a figure or piece of clothing whose middle section has a certain build, as in slim-waisted or thick-waisted

Etymology: "Waisty" is formed by adding the suffix "-y" to "waist," so it means "having a waist" in the sense of a defined or noticeable waist. The base noun "waist" has a more surprising past: in Middle English it was a general word for the middle part of the body, and it was tied to "waxen," meaning "to grow," which suggests the idea of a growing or swelling middle. Its narrowing to the part above the hips came later, as the word's sense became specific to a particular region of the body. The suffix "-y" is one of English's most productive adjective-makers, found in words like "bony," "milky," and "leafy." Attaching it to a body-part noun produces a descriptive adjective, and "waisty" follows that pattern, though it is a less common formation than "bony" or "bushy." Because "waisty" is a transparent, straightforward coinage, its meaning can be read directly from its parts.