garter

Garter comes from Middle English garter, borrowed from Old Northern French gartier (related to Old French garet/jartier), which traces back to Gaulish *garrā, from Proto-Celtic *garros, meaning 'calf' or 'shank.'

The word started out naming a body part — the calf or lower leg — in Celtic and Gaulish speech, then narrowed in French and English to mean the band worn around that part of the leg to hold up a stocking.

It's cognate with French jarretière, which carries the same Celtic root and the same original sense of the leg.