girth
バタバタが続き記事のアップが滞ってしまい申し訳ありませんでした。本日から復帰いたします。
英国 Telegraphの記事からです。女性としては一番の関心事がユーモアを交えてとりあげられており，Inahoさんにもぜひ本文にあたってほしいと思います。
Why do British women have bigger bottoms than the French?
As a mother of four young children – two of them girls – I wholeheartedly applaud the ban on size-zero models recently imposed by the French government. At the same time, reading about this move – part of a campaign against anorexia – has made me consider whether the common perception that French women are slimmer and more chic than their counterparts across the Channel still applies.
It certainly seems to be the case that there are more overweight women in the UK than in France, where I live. Statistics released by the UK Food and Agriculture Organisation in 2013 back up this observation, with 24.9 of Britons listed as obese, compared with a relatively modest 15.4 per cent of French people.
On my last trip home to the UK, I was struck by the number of bulging behinds and straining stomachs in the supermarket: at one point, I couldn’t see a single person with a healthy BMI.
Mind you, I was in the chocolate aisle …
But what has led to this contrast in girth? Talking to French and British friends about their eating habits, it seems that the French have more defined mealtimes – with less snacking – and tend to take longer over their food. Eating more slowly and mindfully is known to limit excess consumption, and this may well contribute to the leaner French frame.
Moreover, there is a focus on healthy balance: lunch and dinner – even at school – are usually composed of three dishes, entrée, plat and dessert. Meals have an emphasis on meat and vegetables over carbohydrates – although, of course, the archetypal French bread is still readily available.
今回はgirthにスポットを当てます。これは「（物の）周囲の寸法，人などの胴回り」を表す語です。LDOCEの定義では"the size of something or someone large when you measure around them rather than measuring their height:"とあり，He was a tall man, of considerable girth (=he was fat).という例文が載っています。girthがタテではなく，ヨコから見た人や物のサイズだということが分かります（cf. height）。
授業でgirdが出てきたときに先生が，girdle，gird up，gird up one's loins，gaitersなどの関連語（句）を挙げられたことを思い出しました。（Starlight）
