GIRDLE

( Anglo- Sax. gird an,?o mc?rc/e.) A belt or band of leather or some other substance used in girding up the loins. The girdle (Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) was in use among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, for various purposes more or le important. By the Hebrews it was worn chiefly upon a journey, and sometimes as a mark of humiliation and sorrow; and by the Greeks and Romans it was used as a military ornament. Hence in the Latin phraseology dngulum dcponere denoted " to quit the service." To deprive a soldier of his girdle was the deepest mark of ignominy with which he could be branded; and even among the civilians, who always wore a girdle over the tunic to render their motions unembarra ed, the want of this appendage was considered strongly presumptive of idle and di olute propensities. In conformity with this opinion, or perhaps in allusion to the occasional substitution of the girdle for the purse among the Romans, Horace has aflirmed that "you may do what you please with him who has lost his girdle," — Ibit eo quo vis qui zonam per did it. Zonam solvere virgineam was a well-known phrase appropriated to the marriage ceremony. To Venus was attributed by the poets the po e ion of a particular kind of girdle, called cestzts, which was said to have the power of inspiring love. It was formerly the custom in England for bankrupts or other insolvent persons to put off and surrender their girdles in open courts. GIRONDE, [s. 527]