Etymograph

English

garb

Garb comes from Italian garbo ‘grace, elegance’, from Old High German garwi ‘dress’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *garwaz ‘ready, prepared’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*garwaz‘ready, prepared’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*garwijaną‘to prepare’reconstructed
  3. Old High Germanc. 750–1050garwi‘dress’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentgarbo‘grace, elegance’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600garbe
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1599garb

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*garwaz‘ready, prepared’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*garwijaną‘to prepare’reconstructed
  3. Old High Germanc. 750–1050garwi‘dress’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentgarbo‘grace, elegance’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600garbe
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1599garb

Earliest quotation: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “You thought, because he could not speak English in…”

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *garwaz ‘ready, prepared’

yar, yarrow, yare, 4 more

through Proto-Germanic *garwijaną ‘to prepare’

gear, gar

Another origin of garb

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400garbe
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  3. Englishtodaygarb

Today it means

noun Fashion, style of dressing oneself up.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *garwaz / garb

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