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/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪst
• Homophone: 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.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act 1, scene 2]:

     In the dead vast and middle of the night

Derived terms

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

 

Descendants

• → Japanese: ウエスト (uesuto)

Translations

part of the body

• 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), qurşaq (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
• Kapampangan: awakan
• Kazakh: бел (bel)
• Khmer: ចង្កេះ (km) (cɑngkeh)
• Korean: 허리 (ko) (heori)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کەمەر‎ (ku) (kemer)

  Northern Kurdish: navteng (ku) f, newq (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: бел (ky) (bel)
• Ladino: ביל‎ m, bel m
• Latin: media pars corporis f, medium corpus n

• Lao: ແອວ (lo) (ʼǣu)
• 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) (belkhüüs)
• Navajo: anííʼ
• Nepali: कटि (ne) (kaṭi), कम्मर (ne) (kammar)
• 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)
• Plautdietsch: Kjnäp f, Weest f, Taulj f
• 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 (bel kejik), бел кеш (bel keş), бел кежи (bel keji)
• 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

part of a piece of clothing that covers the waist

• Danish: talje c
• Finnish: vyötärö (fi)
• 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

narrow connection between the thorax and abdomen in certain insects

• Danish: hvepsetalje c
• Finnish: vyötärö (fi)

• French: taille (fr) f

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

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

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

nautical: upper deck of a ship between the quarterdeck and the forecastle

middle part of anything

• Finnish: keskiosa

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

---

Gothic

Romanization

waist

1. Romanization of 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍃𐍄

---

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /west/
• (Mid Northern Scots) IPA^(key): /wəist/

Noun

waist (plural waists)

1. waist