On a 6-string guitar, the G string is one of the middle strings (along with the D string). It would seem more likely than a high/low violin string, since a G-string goes, er, right up the middle?
That’s the explanation I had always read. However, without proof, it could have been a theory pulled out of one’s, oh never mind.
I’ve always thought it was called a G-string because, since the G-string is the lowest string on a violin, there’s nothing below it!
Could the G stand for “gusset”? Makes me laugh anyway…
Until the early twentieth century, the G string on a violin was the only one still made of pure gut - nowadays, all four strings have a wire wrapping. So I guess for a while, the G string was the only one anybody would consider wearing.
I love when people chime in here with all sorts of offered explanations that don’t take into account data contained in the original story.
All attempts to link “geestring” with a “G” string are suspect because the use of the letter in place of the spelling comes later than the initial use of the word.
The attempt to link the term for the string around the waist holding up a loin cloth with terms for the area covered by the “cloth” are suspect because the “string” isn’t the part covering the genitalia. One can have a “geestring” without having a loincloth attached, presumably.
Presumably the use of the term particularly to describe something worn by Amerinds in the mid to late 1800’s would indicate that the term originated based upon some terminology picked up from the Amerinds to decribe the object. That would be my choice for a start at the etymology. Perhaps someone with knowledge of the language of the various plains Amerinds could elucidate on such thoughts (the idea that the word is “geestringi” and just happens to describe a “string” is much too conincidental for me to credit in the absence of stonger proof).
Mid- to late- 1800s is late enough for any Amerind to have picked up on terminology used by eg. passing tradesmen…even if they used a g-string-type word, doesn’t prove it doesn’t come from a european source.
Here’s the obvious: It’s not a G-string, but a g-string. Look at the letter g in a font like Times Roman. Two loops, joined in the middle.
Now, throw a g-string on the floor. Two loops, joined in the middle.
Let’s up the ante on this.
Just yesterday, a brilliant researcher over at the American Dialect Society Mailing List, John Baker, found the second oldest reference to the term. I’ll quote it here for your consideration. It is from 1882.
The difference of four years in between the quotes would seem to be insignificant. So whether the term is “G” or “gee” is in limbo.
Also, the important thing about this last find is that the hanging cloth is considered to be the “g” string, not the belt that holds it. How does this change things? Which explanation is correct?
I’ll post updates as they are discovered.
If I’ve just thrown a g-string on the floor, I believe my attention would be focussed on other matters…
samclem, do you have a citation to that reference?
Sure. From the “Making of America” electronic database, a service of the Smithsonian, http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
it’s cited from "Mary E. Meline, ‘Into the silent Land,’ Catholic World, vol. 35, no. 210 (Sept., 1882), pp. 775-85, at p. 781.
Darn. All this time I’ve been thinking that JS Bach wrote ‘Air on a G string’ as an ode to the flatulent ecdysiast with whom he was enamored. :rolleyes:
If you check the Google Glossary, it says, “A variation of the thong, this undergarment or swimwear bottom has a similar waistband but uses a string instead of a larger panel of fabric in the back. From the word garter, the G-string has become a foundation option when a smooth line is preferred under pants, skirts and dresses.”
This quote is from polo.com
Hrmm…
One doubts that the Polo Company employs an archivist/historian to write their patter. They’re of course referring to the “g-string” which we in the modern era understand to be what a stripper wears. Whether the “g” in a strippers atire refers to “girdle” is open to debate.
It could be, of course, since the real meaning of “girdle” is (more or less) “belt”.
Interesting site, samclem. Thanks! 
Update as promised.
John Baker, who found the 1882 cite which I posted, thinks that the “G-string” referred to in his find is talking about the whole shebang, not the dangling strip nor the belt.
I still personally think that it’s open to debate, unless an earlier cite comes along.
‘gee’ is an cherokee word for loincloth, sort of like leggings. but meaning the underpart that goes between the legs, the part that holds the ‘goods’, for male or female wearers.
rezwar, do you speak Cherokee? Or are you repeating something heard from someone?
I’ve seen you posting recently with regard to a number of the discussions regarding etymology of words or terms. The difficulty with many such discussions is that, in the absence of either an extant written use of the term, or a contemporary user of the term, determining the actual etymology becomes impossible, and is reserved as an exercise in speculation, not a discussion of fact. The concept of the term “G-string” or “geestring” originating from some Amerind word is certainly plausible: the item described was worn by Native Americans, who presumably had words in each of their language families to describe the item, and it was common for the colonists to pick up such words and use bastardized versions of them. But since we don’t have any printed version of the term in English before 1878, and we certainly don’t have a native speaker of the various Amerind languages which could have been the source still alive, it is hard to pin down the actual fact of the matter.
An equally probable explanation to the concept that “gee” is a Cherokee word meaning the extended type of loin cloth in question, giving rise to the use of the term by the white settlers, is that “gee” came to be used by the Cherokee who adopted the term from the white settlers with whom they had concourse and discourse at the time.
I only bring this up because your statement in your post, as has been true of some other posts I have seen from you, presents your contribution to the discussion as if it were “fact.” This sort of posting tends to bring out the worst in our members, who immediately engage in “piling on the newbie” by questioning the assertion and asking for citation to reliable authority. Eventually, you learn to either present the contribution as an opinion, a suggestion, or an interesting bit of trivia, or you attach some sort of verifiable evidence to back up your claim. Unless you like being at the bottom. 
A specifically Cherokee origin is, perhaps, testable. The language has existed in written form for nearly 200 years.
The sound “gee” is possible, at any rate; the syllable
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Stadium/7075/cherokee/cpicsStripped/tsi.gif
, usually transcribed “tsi”, is pronounced “gee” in Western Cherokee.