ID … • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√ǦYR
▪ From Engl gear (in the mod. sense of ‘parts by which a motor communicates motion’).
▪ not earlier than 1890 s.
▪ The Engl word from which the EgAr gīr is taken is attested from c. 1200 and meant originally ‘fighting equipment, armor and weapons’. It is »prob. from oNo gørvi (pl. gørvar) ‘apparel, gear’, related to görr, gørr, gerr ‘skilled, accomplished; ready, willing’, and to gøra, gørva ‘to make, construct, build; set in order, prepare’, a very frequent vb. in oNo, used in a wide range of situations from writing a book to dressing meat. This is from protGerm *garwjan ‘to make, prepare, equip’ (source also of oEngl gearwe ‘clothing, equipment, ornament’, which may be the source of some uses; oSax garwei; Du gaar ‘done, dressed’; oHGe garo ‘ready, prepared, complete’, garawi ‘clothing, dress’, garawen ‘to make ready’; Ge gerben ‘to tan’). – From eC14 as ‘wearing apparel, clothes, dress’, also ‘harness of a draught animal; equipment of a riding horse.’ From lC14 as ‘equipment generally; tools, utensils’, especially the necessary equipment for a certain activity, as the rigging of a sailing ship. Meaning ‘toothed wheel in machinery’ first attested 1520 s; specific mechanical sense of ‘parts by which a motor communicates motion’ is from 1814; specifically of a vehicle (bicycle, automobile, etc.) by 1888. Slang for ‘male sex organs’ from 1670 s« – EtymOnline.
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