waist

English

Alternative forms

• waste, wast (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English waste, wast (“stature, waist”), from Old English *wǣst, *wǣxt, from Proto-Germanic *wahstuz (“growth, development, stature, build”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weg-s- (“to multiply, increase”). Cognate with Middle High German wahst (“growth”), Danish vækst (“growth”), Swedish växt (“growth, development, size”), Icelandic vöxtur (“growth”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (wahstus, “growth”). Related to Old English weaxan (“to grow, increase”). More at wax.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /weɪst/
• Rhymes: -eɪst
• Homophones: waste

Noun

waist (plural waists)

1. The part of the body between the pelvis and the stomach.
2. A part of a piece of clothing that covers the waist.
3. The narrow connection between the thorax and abdomen in certain insects (e.g., bees, ants and wasps).
4. The middle portion of the hull of a ship or the fuselage of an aircraft.
5. (nautical) That part of the upper deck of a ship between the quarterdeck and the forecastle.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 18

     There he stood, very quietly overlooking some sailmakers who were mending a top-sail in the waist.

6. (obsolete) The middle part of anything.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Derived terms

• pantywaist
• sheer-to-waist
• shirtwaist
• waistband
• waist cincher
• waistcoat
• waistless
• waistline
• wasp waist

 

Descendants

• → Japanese: ウエスト (uesuto)
• → Arabic: وسط‎ (wsṭ)

Translations

part of the body between the pelvis and the stomach

• Albanian: bel (sq) m
• Arabic: خَصْر‎ m (ḵaṣr), وَسَط‎ m (wasaṭ)

  Egyptian Arabic: وسط‎ m (weṣṭ)

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: bel (az)
• Bashkir: бил (bil)
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: та́лія f (tálija)
• Breton: dargreiz (br) m, bandenn (br) f
• Brunei Malay: pinggang
• Bulgarian: та́лия f (tálija)
• Burmese: ခါး (my) (hka:)
• Catalan: cintura (ca) f
• Chichewa: chiuno
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 腰 (zh) (yāo), 腰部 (zh) (yāobù)

• Coptic: ϯⲡⲓ f (tipi)
• Czech: pas (cs) m
• Danish: talje c
• Dutch: middel (nl) n
• Esperanto: talio (eo)
• Estonian: vöökoht
• Finnish: vyötärö (fi)
• French: taille (fr) f
• Galician: cintura (gl) f, van (gl) m, cós m
• Georgian: წელი (ka) (c̣eli)
• German: Taille (de) f
• Greek: μέση (el) f (mési)

  Ancient: ἰξύς f (ixús)

• Gujarati: કમર (gu) (kamar)
• Hawaiian: pūhaka
• Hebrew: מֹתֶן‎ (he) m (moten)
• Hindi: कमर (hi) f (kamar)
• Hungarian: derék (hu)
• Icelandic: mitti (is) n
• Ido: tayo (io)
• Indonesian: pinggang (id)
• Italian: vita (it) f, cintura (it) f, cintola (it) f
• Japanese: 胴のくびれ (どうのくびれ, dō no kubire), 腰部 (ja) (ようぶ, yōbu), 胴回り (どうまわり, dōmawari)
• Kabuverdianu: sintura
• Kazakh: бел (bel)
• Khmer: ចង្កេះ (km) (cɑngkeh)
• Korean: 허리 (ko) (heori)
• Kurdish: navteng (ku) f, newq (ku) f, کەمەر‎ (ku) (kemer)
• Kyrgyz: бел (ky) (bel)
• Ladino: ביל‎ m, bel m
• Lao: ແອວ (lo) (’ǣu)
• Latvian: viduklis m, jostasvieta f

• Lithuanian: juosmuo ?
• Macedonian: појас m (pojas)
• Malay: pinggang
• Maltese: qadd
• Manchu: ᡩᠠᡵᠠ (dara), ᡩᠠᡵᠠᠮᠠ (darama)
• Maori: please add this translation if you can
• Miyako: ヨーラ (jōra)
• Mongolian: бэлхүүс (mn) (belhüüs)
• Navajo: anííʼ
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: midje ?
• Old Turkic: 𐰋𐰃𐰠‎ (bél)
• Oriya: please add this translation if you can
• Ottoman Turkish: بل‎ (bel), بیل‎ (bîl), كمر‎ (kemer)
• Persian: کمر‎ (fa) (kamar)
• Polish: talia (pl) f, pas (pl) m
• Portuguese: cintura (pt) f
• Romani: mashkar m
• Romanian: mijloc (ro) ?, talie (ro) ?
• Russian: та́лия (ru) f (tálija)
• Scottish Gaelic: meadhan m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̏ја̄с m

  Roman: pȍjās (sh) m

• Slovak: pás m
• Slovene: pas (sl) m
• Spanish: cintura (es) f
• Sundanese: angkeng
• Swahili: kiuno (sw)
• Swedish: midja (sv) ?
• Tagalog: baywang (tl), bewang (tl)
• Tajik: камар (tg) (kamar), миён (tg) (miyon)
• Tamil: இடுப்பு (ta) (iṭuppu)
• Telugu: నడుము (te) (naḍumu)
• Thai: เอว (th) (eeo), สะเอว (th) (sà-eeo), กะเอว (th) (gà-eeo), บั้นเอว
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: bel (tr)
• Turkmen: bil (tk)
• Tuvan: бел кежик (bäl käžïk), бел кеш (bäl käš), бел кежи (bäl käžï)
• Ukrainian: та́лія f (tálija)
• Urdu: کمر‎ f (kamar)
• Uyghur: بەل‎ (bel)
• Uzbek: bel (uz)
• Vietnamese: eo (vi), eo lưng (vi)
• Welsh: gwasg m
• White Hmong: please add this translation if you can
• Yami: kawakan
• Zazaki: mér
• Zhuang: hwet

a part of a piece of clothing that covers the waist

• Danish: talje c
• French: taille (fr) f, ceinture (fr) f
• Hawaiian: pākana
• Icelandic: mitti (is) n

• Polish: pas (pl) m
• Russian: по́яс (ru) m (pójas), лиф (ru) m (lif) (bodice)
• Scottish Gaelic: meadhan m
• Spanish: cintura (es) f

the narrow connection between the thorax and abdomen in certain insects

• Danish: hvepsetalje c

• French: taille (fr) f

the middle portion of the hull of a ship or the fuselage of an aircraft

• Estonian: kesktekk
• German: Rumpf (de) m

• Hungarian: törzs (hu)
• Russian: шкафу́т (ru) m (škafút)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Breton: ^{(please verify)} bandenn (br) f
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} middendek n

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} vita (it) f

Further reading

• Waist in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• Waist on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Swati, Waits, waits

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Gothic

Romanization

waist

1. Romanization of 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍃𐍄