G-string: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:07, 20 March 2025

Revision as of 15:19, 22 March 2025

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== Etymology ==

The term ''G-string'' is first attested in 1878.<ref>{{CiteCitation | quote = Around each [Navajo] boy's waist is the tight "geestring |author= J. H. Beadle |title=Western Wilds and the Men who redeem them |date= 1878

|page= 249 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101078191184&seq=11}}</ref> It originally denoted the [[loincloths]] worn by certain American Indians, and did not come to be used for a type of female undergarment until the 1920s. The significance of the ''G'' is unclear. [[Charles Fletcher Lummis]] said it resembled a capital 'G'<ref>{{CiteCitation | quote = so named, probably, because its convolutions somewhat resemble a capital G — is in Apachedom a strip of unbleached muslin about six feet long and two feet wide ; and after it has been knotted, the extremities form small aprons in front and rear|author= Charles F. Lummis |title= The Land of the Poco Tiempo |date= 1893 |page= 179 |publisher= C. Scribner's Sons |url= https://archive.org/details/landpocotiempo00lummgoog/page/n197/mode/2up?q=g+string&view=theater }}</ref>. It has been suggested that it represents a euphemistic abbreviation of ''groin'',<ref>{{Cite OED|G-string|1116244313}}</ref> or else that it is short for ''[[girdle]]''; the term ''girdle-string'' is attested as early as 1846.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/262/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for | title = What does the G in G-string stand for? | date = 2010-09-02 | last1 = Adams | first1 = Cecil | author-link1 = Cecil Adams | website = [[The Straight Dope]] | access-date = 2014-12-21 | quote = ''Littell's Living Age'', Vol. IX, 1846: 'Their arms were a small hatchet, stuck in their girdle-string.' While that hardly proves G-string is an abbreviation of girdlestring, the fact that the latter word existed and means the same as G-string supports my conjecture that the shorter term derived from the longer. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150225024121/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/262/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for | archive-date = 2015-02-25 | url-status = live }}</ref>

There are numerous examples in 19th century newspapers of a ''girdle'' (as the belt of a [[breech clout]]) being the repository for scalps, tomahawks and knives of native americans<ref>{{cite web | url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?state=&date1=1800&date2=1900&proxtext=girdle+scalp&x=16&y=3&dateFilterType=yearRange&rows=20&searchType=basic | title=Chronicling America &#124; Library of Congress }}</ref> and with the same meaning ''girdle string'' was still in use in 1899<ref>{{CiteCitation | quote = he stripped the scalp from his fallen enemy and tied the hair to his girdle string

|author= Charles T. Abbott |title=The Cliff Dweller's Daughter, 1899, page 249 |date= 1899 |publisher= F. Tennyson Neely |url= https://archive.org/details/cliffdwellersda00abbogoog/page/n242/mode/2up?q=girdle+string&view=theater}}</ref>

As attire for a dancer it is known from 1910 when [[Elbert Hubbard]] wrote: "Down in New York a girl gave a [[Dance of the Seven Veils | Salome dance]] in a G string and sandals"<ref>{{citecitation |title=The Philistine, April 1910 | date=1895 |url=https://archive.org/details/philistineaperi02nygoog/page/n150/mode/2up?q=%22g-string%22&view=theater

}}</ref>.