# What does the G in G-string stand for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 26, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869 "2010-03-26T13:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/21 "2017-12-23T16:36:00Z")
> [@Smell-Dr](#): > > …7) capital G, as it relates to the shape of the garment and how it fits the female anatomy… This has piqued my curiosity. How exactly does a G fit a female anatomy? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/22 "2017-12-23T17:21:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Folk etymology is pretty much defined by people thinking of an origin for a word or phrase and saying, hey, that’s sounds good to me. And then they’re done. They don’t have to do any research, don’t have to check whether anybody ever used it that way, don’t have to refute any other claims. That’s why nobody takes it seriously. And then the thread is revived with this folk etymology atrocity. > [@Smell-Dr](#): > > I have quite recently been shopping for lingerie that my wife will donn for our mutual benefit. The one word that keeps coming up in the panty section is “open-gussett”. I would like to offer two new possibilities that I have not yet seen in this thread. > Perhaps the G represents gussett. > The following definition is given by a Google search; “a piece of material sewn into a garment to strengthen or enlarge a part of it, such as the collar of a shirt or the crotch of an undergarment.” The Urban dictionary defines it as; “part of a womans underwear, which sits just below her pussy.” This would seem counter intuitive to the actual design of the G- string garment, however, the English language is fraught with misinterpretations of words with quizzically opposite meanings. > > The other possibility would be that the G in G-string may represent the same word that the g in G-spot represents. When doing a Google search, the g in G- spot represents Gräfenberg (for German gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg) who is credited with its discovery while studying female urethral stimulation in the 1940’s. > > Here are my ratings in the order of what seems most likely to me: > > 1. girdle > 2. Gräfenberg > 3. gussett > 4. garter > 5. 'gina (short for vagina) > 6. groin > 7. capital G, as it relates to the shape of the garment and how it fits the female anatomy. I rate it “G” as in God, why don’t they ever learn? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/23 "2017-12-23T19:23:49Z")
It’s taking longer than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2017, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/24 "2017-12-24T04:34:46Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > This has piqued my curiosity. How exactly does a G fit a female anatomy? In the “G-strings” I have seen, it’s no different, really, from any bikini. Somehow they stay up, even though they’re below the hips. (The official definition of a bikini is that it reveals the navel, but, more often than not, that means the “waist” is way below the anatomical waist.) But perhaps this is some other sort of “G-string”. Oh, as for dates, “G-string” on the violin is attested since 1838, in certain native costume since 1878, and on showgirls and strippers since 1936. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2017, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/25 "2017-12-24T12:36:40Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > My son’s learning of the guitar and the inevitable breakage … “Hey, dad, next time you go shopping could you pick me up a “G” string” … he’s still mad at me over that little incident … I remember a cartoon panel in one of my dad’s magazines ([_True_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_(magazine)), IIRC) with a little boy carrying a violin case, mouth open to speak, obviously having just come in, behind his father in an easy chair who’s holding a newspaper, looking extremely startled. The caption is _Sally broke a G-string in the middle of her performance today._ Being nine years-old, I didn’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/26 "2017-12-24T17:21:21Z")
I connected it with music, probably because of Bach’s Air On The G-string, although of course nobody plays with the other kind of G-string. Oh, wait a minute … ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2017, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/27 "2017-12-25T04:36:12Z")
Apparently, though, “Air on the G string” is the title of a modern work based on something by Bach. Bach wouldn’t know what you were talking about. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/28 "2017-12-25T14:43:37Z")
If the G-string is named after a girdle, what are the d, If the G-string is named for a girdle, what are the D, A and E strings named for? Oh - maybe for the names of the notes they are tuned to? All 4? ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/29 "2017-12-25T15:17:20Z")
In the run-up to his attempt to jump his cycle over the Snake River Canyon in 1974, daredevil Evel Knieval stated that he would be wearing a G-suit for the jump, prompting Pittsburgh sportscaster Bill Curry to wryly inquire, “Is that anything like a G _string_?” ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2017, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869/30 "2017-12-30T12:19:27Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > “Air on the G string” is the title of a modern work based on something by Bach. “Air” from the _Orchestral Suite No. 3._ Not all that modern (the arranger died in 1908) but it certainly postdates Bach. The solo violin part is transposed down a ninth so it can be played entirely on the G-string (_auf der G-Saite_ is an indication to the solo violin, not part of the title). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for/533869.md?page=1)