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Origin and history of tyre

tyre(n.)

variant spelling of tire (n.), chiefly British English.

Entries linking to tyre

tire(n.)

late 15c., "iron plates forming a rim of a carriage wheel," probably from an extended use of tire "equipment, dress, covering, trappings or accoutrements of a knight" (c. 1300, tir), a shortened form of attire (n.). The notion would be of the tire as the "dressing" of the wheel. Theory that it is tie-er has been discarded.

Tire (n.) also was used late 15c. of a decorative metal edging for a bell. Also compare Middle English tirement "adornment, ornaments" (c. 1400, from Old French atirement); tirewoman "lady's maid, woman who dresses others" (1610s). Also the theatrical tiring-house (1580s) or tiring-room (1620s), where players dress for the stage.

The oldest spelling was tyre, which had shifted to tire in 17c.-18c., but since early 19c. tyre has revived in Great Britain and become standard there. Rubber tires, for bicycles (later automobiles) were in use from 1877. A tire-iron originally was one of the iron plates; as a length of steel flat at one end and used to separate a tire from a wheel, by 1909.

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    spare
    Spare tire (or tyre) is by 1894 of bicycles; 1903 of automobiles; 1961 of waistlines....
    tartan
    fabric" (mid-13c.), from Old French tiret "kind of cloth," from tire "silk cloth," from Medieval Latin tyrius "cloth from Tyre...
    era
    Other ancient eras included the Chaldean (autumn of 311 B.C.E.), the Era of Actium (31 B.C.E.), of Antioch (49 B.C.E.), of Tyre...
    flat
    Flat tire or flat tyre is from 1908....
    purple
    Tyrian purple (properly a crimson), produced around Tyre, was prized as dye for royal garments, hence the figurative use...
    grin
    Old English grennian "show the teeth" (in pain or anger), common Germanic (cognates: Old Norse grenja "to howl," grina "to grin;" Dutch grienen "to whine;" German greinen "to cry"), from PIE root *ghrei- "be open." Sense of "bare the teeth in a broad smile" is late 15c., perhaps
    ring
    [circular band] Old English hring "circlet of metal, especially one of a precious metal for wearing on the finger ornamentally, also a part of a mail coat; anything circular," from Proto-Germanic *hringaz "something curved, circle" (source also of Old Norse hringr, Old Frisian hr
    hoop
    late 12c., "circular band, flattened ring," probably from an unrecorded Old English *hop, from Proto-Germanic *hōp (source also of Old Frisian hop "a hoop, band," Middle Dutch and Dutch hoep "hoop," Old Norse hop "a small bay"). The original meaning must have been "curve; ring,"
    pooh
    1590s, "a 'vocal gesture' expressing the action of puffing anything away" [OED], used as an exclamation of dislike, scorn, or contempt, first attested in Hamlet Act I, Scene III, where Polonius addresses Ophelia with, "Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl, / Unsifted in s
    rite
    early 14c., "formal act or procedure of religious observance performed according to an established manner," from Latin ritus "custom, usage," especially "a religious observance or ceremony" (source also of Spanish, Italian rito), which perhaps is from PIE root *re- "to reason, co

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