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Does “Gird Your Loins” Mean What You THINK It Means?

Does it have anything to do with sex?

Freelance Writing Zone
5 min readJul 31, 2019

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When I was ten my mother had to sign documents at the library allowing me to check out adult books. I read voraciously … still do. I started reading romances when I was eleven.

I used to babysit for a lawyer a few houses down. He had the entire collection of Ian Flemming’s 007 series. I read it all by the time I was twelve. Ditto with his wife’s extensive collection of romance novels.

I remember the first time I read the words … “gird his loins.”

Yeowser, what does THAT mean? From the context of the historic “white knight” romance I was reading, it seemed like it could be pretty tame. I understood it to mean, get armored up and ready for the joust.

I kept on looking at the word “loins.” My mind went to “sex.” Heck, I was almost thirteen, where else would it go?

I finally got brave enough to look up “loins” in the HUGE dictionary at the library. I also looked up “gird your loins” in the encyclopaedia.

Talk about disappointment. NO sex involved.

What Part Of The Body Does Loins Refer To?

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Melanie Rockett
Freelance Writing Zone

Over 40 years Freelance Writing — pretty well everything! | Writing | Book Promotions | Marketing | melanierockett.com