100 Things That Still Make Being Me Just That Bit Better... 87

[sallymn]

The word 'girt', and the fact that Australians are the only people who all use the word regularly, and some of us even the sort of know what it means... just makes me happy every time I hear our anthem.

(Which is usually when earnest sportspeople are mangling and mumbling it because the only line they know is the the one about us being girt...)

Comments

[lost_spook]

I'm from the West Country and "girt" is a word we use a lot - it's our dialect form of great (as in large). But then Australia is certainly girt in that sense, too.

(e.g. "He had a girt big tractorrrrrrr and drank ciderrrrr all day, me luvverr." :lol:)

I know what the other girt is, too. We here in Britain are also girt. But not in the West Country sense, usually.

;-)

[sallymn]

Definitely different girts :)

A lot of Aussies who've been forced to learn the anthem as a kid (and promptly forgot it) quite possibly think girting can only bee done by sea.... certainly I haven't heard that meaning used in any other context...

[watervole]

It's clearly related to the word 'girdle' in some way.

[sallymn]

Yep, the online dictionary says "before 950; Middle English girden, Old English gyrdan" which would be where they both come from.

But girdle doesn't scan with the music, I guess, and also wouldn't be nearly as easy for comedians to poke fun at :)

[snailbones]

*waves at lost_spook*

Yep, from the West Country too, and things are certainly still 'girt big uns' when nothing else will do *g*

Though I had no idea Australians were girt too, and certainly not in the anthem. How wonderful - why is our anthem so staid? *pouts*

[sallymn]

Oh, the rest of the anthem is as dreary as all getout (it is a wonderful true fact that one of the songs seriously considered for our anthem was Waltzing Matilda... you know, the uplifting little ditty in commemoration of a suicidal sheep thief) which is probably part of the reason no one can remember it when they're expected to sing it (watching football players trying not to look like they're going "ummm ummm soil and ummm ummm toil" on tv is fun :)

[snailbones]

Hee! I'd vote for Waltzing Matilda any day. Ours is equally daft - we're only allowed to have a crack at the first verse, because the rest of it offends just about everyone. Which is a blessing, because it's so utterly dreary nobody would last to the end anyway.

I'm humming Waltzing Matilda now *g*

[sallymn]

I have to wonder why nearly all national anthems tend to po-faced dreariness (okay okay, except the French, I do like the Marseilles)

[vjezkova]

Ehem...please, can you explain ´girt´ to a Czech girl? :-)

[sallymn]

Basically it's an old and almost unused word meaning "girdled by" or "surrounded by"... the line in our anthem, in plain English would be "our home is surrounded by sea" but that didn't fit the music, I guess :)

Don't worry about not knowing - or remembering - it, Aussies only do because they were made to learn the anthem as kids, and we all forget as soon as we can... except, for some reason, the word girt that isn't used anywhere else BY anyone else these days :)

[jaxomsride]

Not to be confused with "gird" either. Not a word that is used all that often round here in that context, though girt = great is.

[sallymn]

We use it precisely once - in them anthem. Methinks simply because nothing else scans...