G-string

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:18 AM -0400 5/6/03, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>Even those who believe in the demonstrable existence of the G-spot will, I
>believe, concede that it is not visible externally -- with or without a
>G-string. And of course "Ernest" was not in any way a pioneer in the
>geography of the general anatomical area in question.

Yes, it does seem unlikely that the first cites in the OED were
derived from "G-[spot-pointing] strings", given that Grafenberg
wasn't born yet and that these cites seem to have involved male
wearers.  Last time I checked, we guys don't have G-spots, which on
this theory would make our G-strings very misleading at best.

>I think the G-string (originally a string supporting a loincloth or so) was
>most likely named after the lowest string of a violin, although the
>alternative of coincidental origin from some Amerind word is not impossible
>AFAIK.
>
Is it relevant that the earliest listed cited (1878, 1885) spelled it
"gee(-)string", while the musical strings are always spelled G string
(with letter and sans hyphen)?

Larry