Other forms: waists
The waist is the narrow middle of your body, where a belt sits. A narrow waist, waist measurement, from the waist up.
Measuring it is a better guide to health risk than weight alone, because fat around the middle behaves differently from fat elsewhere. On a garment, the waist is where it is narrowest. Note the spelling against waste; and that the Old English word is related to a root meaning growth or stature.
1nounwaistThe narrow middle of the body.
“The dress has a belt that ties at the waist.”
waist is a body part.
Middle English wast probably comes from an Old English word related to growth or stature. Wax, meaning to grow, is a relative.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂weg-
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂weks- — to multiply, increase
Proto-Germanic
*wahstuz — growth, development, stature, build
Proto-West Germanic
*wahstu
Old English
*wæst
Middle English
wast — waist
English, today
waist
Middle English wast (“waist”), probably from Old English wæst, wǣst, weaxt, wæhst, from Proto-West Germanic wahstu, from Proto-Germanic wahstuz (“growth, development, stature, build”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂weks- (“to multiply, increase”). Cognate with Middle English wacste (“growth, increase, might, power”), Middle High German wahst (“growth”), Danish vækst (“growth”), Swedish växt (“growth, development, size”), Icelandic vöxtur (“growth”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (“growth”). Related to Old English weaxan (“to grow, increase”). More at wax.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA