pare (v.)

c. 1300, paren, "peel (fruit), cut off the crust (of bread)," from Old French parer "arrange, prepare; trim, adorn," and directly from Latin parare "make ready, prepare, furnish, provide, arrange, order; contrive, design, intend, resolve; procure, acquire, obtain, get; get with money, buy, purchase" (related to parire "produce, bring forth, give birth to"), from PIE *par-a-, suffixed form of root *pere- (1) "to produce, procure."

From late 14c. in the more general sense of "trim by cutting or scraping off an outer layer;" meaning "to reduce something little by little" is from 1520s. Pare down "reduce by cutting or striking off" is from late 15c. Related: Pared; paring.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to pare

parer (n.)

1570s, "instrument for paring," agent noun from pare (v.).

prepare (v.)

mid-15c., "set in order or readiness for a particular end," a back formation from preparation and in part from Old French preparer (14c.), from Latin praeparare "to make ready beforehand," from prae "before" (see pre-) + parare "to make ready" (from PIE root *pere- (1) "to produce, procure"). Compare pare (v.), which is from the same Latin verb. Related: Prepared; preparer; preparing.

Intransitive sense of "make (oneself) ready beforehand" is from c. 1500. The sense of "bring into a particular mental state with reference to the future" is by 1520s. The sense of "make (food) ready to eat" is from late 15c. (Caxton). The meaning "provide or procure for future use" is from 1530s. An earlier verb was preparate (late 14c.), from Latin praeparatus, past participle of praeparare. The Boy Scouts' motto Be Prepared is attested from 1911, based, as he said, on the initials of the organization's founder, Robert Baden-Powell.

*pere- (1)

*perə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to produce, procure" and yielding and derived words in diverse senses; possibly related to *pere- (2) "to grant, allot."

It forms all or part of: ante-partum; apparatus; apparel; biparous; disparate; emperor; empire; heifer; imperative; imperator; imperial; juniper; multiparous; nulliparous; oviparous; para- (2) "defense, protection against; that which protects from;" Parabellum; parachute; parade; parados; parapet; parasol; pare; parent; -parous; parry; parturient; poor; post-partum; preparation; prepare; primipara; puerperal; rampart; repair (v.1) "to mend, put back in order;" repertory; separate; sever; several; spar (v.); viper; vituperation; viviparous.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit prthukah "child, calf, young of an animal;" Greek poris "calf, bull;" Latin parare "make ready, prepare," parire "produce, bring forth, give birth to;" Czech spratek "brat, urchin, premature calf;" Lithuanian periu, perėti "to brood;" Old High German farro, German Farre "bullock," Old English fearr "bull."

Trends of pare

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to Explore

trim

mid-15c., probably from Old English trymian, trymman "strengthen, fortify, confirm; comfort; incite; set in order, arrange, prepare, make ready; become strong," from trum "strong, stable," from Proto-Germanic *trum-, from PIE *dru-mo-, suffixed form of root *deru- "be firm, solid

skin

c. 1200, "animal hide" (usually dressed and tanned), from Old Norse skinn "animal hide, fur," from Proto-Germanic *skinth- (source also of rare Old English scinn, Old High German scinten, German schinden "to flay, skin;" German dialectal schind "skin of a fruit," Flemish schinde

peel

"to strip off" the skin, bark, or rind from, developed from Old English pilian "to peel, skin, decorticate, strip the skin or ring," and Old French pillier, both from Latin pilare "to strip of hair," from pilus "hair" (see pile (n.3)). Probably also influenced by Latin pellis "sk

chip

early 15c., "to break off in small pieces" (intransitive, of stone); from Old English forcippian "to pare away by cutting...

shave

English shaven, from Old English sceafan (strong verb, past tense scof, past participle scafen), "to scrape, shave, or pare...

shive

Compare skive (v.1) "to split or cut into strips, pare off, grind away," a later word borrowed from Scandinavian and...

dress

c. 1300, "make straight; direct, guide, control; prepare for cooking," from Old French dresser, drecier "raise (oneself); address, prepare; lift, raise, hoist; set up, arrange, set (a table), serve (food); straighten, put right, direct," from Vulgar Latin *directiare "make straig

decrease

early 15c., decresen (intransitive) "become less, be diminished gradually," from Anglo-French decreiss-, present-participle stem of decreistre, Old French descroistre (12c., Modern French décroître), from Latin decrescere "to grow less, diminish," from de "away from" (see de-) +

sprit

Middle English sprete, from Old English spreot "pole, pike, spear," originally "a sprout, shoot, branch of a tree," from Proto-Germanic *sprut- (see sprout (v.)). It is cognate with Middle Dutch spriet, Middle Low German spryet, German Spriet, North Frisian sprit. The only surviv

strip

"remove the clothes of, deprive of covering," early 13c., strepen, a specialized sense of Old English -striepan, -strypan (transitive) "to plunder, rob, despoil" (as in West Saxon bestrypan "to plunder," Anglian -strepan). This is from Proto-Germanic *straupijan (source also of M

Share pare

‘cite’

Page URL:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/pare

HTML Link:

<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/pare">Etymology of pare by etymonline</a>

APA style:

Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of pare. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved $(datetime), from https://www.etymonline.com/word/pare

Chicago style:

Harper Douglas, “Etymology of pare,” Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed $(datetime), https://www.etymonline.com/word/pare.

MLA style:

Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of pare.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/pare. Accessed $(datetimeMla).

IEEE style:

D. Harper. “Etymology of pare.” Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/pare (accessed $(datetime)).

updated on January 15, 2020

Remove ads >

Dictionary entries near pare

parchment

pard

pardon

pardonable

pardoner

pare

paregoric

parenchyma

parent

parentage

parental