Gird" has a few definitions, though effectively we kind of use them all at once. The first means to encircle with a strap, like how schoolchildren used to tie books together with belts (I think they did this, at least. I remember seeing an illustration for an old Homer Price book where Homer did this). This one we don't normally use except in its definitive sense, and no one outside of sailors and cattlemen really say it because who the hell else ties things up anymore. The more popular use of the term is combination of its other two official definitions: the first is a more general "to surround," in a physical sense, with the objective of fortification. It also means to prepare oneself for action.

I most often hear "gird" as part of the phrase "gird your loins," which when used correctly is both perfectly descriptive and creepily evocative. I can't hear the phrase, or type it, or even run it through my head without feeling my pelvis tighten. It's the same way I go through a sympathy tightness whenever I see a man on television getting racked in the groin with a wiffle bat. You probably do the same, if you're a man. You grimace and wave your hand above your crotch, even though it's not you getting hit and you're not feeling any pain or in danger of feeling any pain. You still gird yourself.

Gird sounds like a spoiled pronunciation of "guard," something a street urchin would say in an old novel. It is dirty sounding, in a way, like "cuss" and "terlet." Unlike "guard," gird is only an adjective, and only used in very specific circumstances. You can use it when you're describing physically putting something on top of something else, something precious, in order to protect it. Through doing this, you are preparing yourself for action. If someone tries hitting you in the crotch and misses, you are going to go after them. Likewise—and this is just me talking, me personally, explaining my solecism—I think gird should be used to describe that sympathetic sensation you get when watching other people protect themselves as a means of readying themselves for a response. When I tense up and feign protecting my genitals, I am girding myself. Even though I'm not really protecting myself and even though I'm not preparing myself for any response, I'm still girding myself.

There is a metaphorical girding, too. This is when you say "gird your loins" when something besides your loins is in danger. The reason we say "gird your loins" instead of "gird your bank account" or "gird your spot at the pool table" is because we can't picture ourselves wrapping something around these things in order to protect them, or else we can't see ourselves reflexively doing so. Our loins, we perfectly understand protecting. We understand groin danger so much that we react to it when we see it coming towards a stranger on TV. It's maybe the only situation we all understand well enough to react with such predictable and uniform sympathy. We don't jump out of the way when we see a train bearing down on someone on TV. We don't clutch our chests when a man gets shot, lower our jaws when a man gets punched, or hold our breath when a man jumps underwater. Wiffle bats are much more frightening than guns and fists, in this respect.

My suggestion is that "gird" be applied to any such fear that elicits similarly sympathetic responses as does getting hit in the balls. If something makes you groan and gesture not only when it happens to you but also when it happens to someone else, then that something makes you gird. If you hear about your friend puking from food poisoning and this causes you inhale sharply and loudly while pulling back your lips, you are girding. If the description of Viet Cong bamboo torture makes you stick your fingertips in your mouth and suck on them, then that description has made you gird.

This use of the word works perfectly. Gird is icky sounding but not quite profane; sound-wise, it perfectly matches the sensation of involuntary "girding," as I have described it. Plus, there doesn't exist any simple, usable term to describe this phenomenon. Neurologists and psychologists have some, but they're really lame. This works better.