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Can one buy tires in Tyre?

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July 05, 2008, 11:55
<Asa Lovejoy>
Can one buy tires in Tyre?
I'm curious as to why the word, "tire," which seems to be a shortened form of "attire," got to be spelled "tyre" in British English. From what little research I did, "tire" is the earlier form.

Asa, wondering if tyres roll better in Tyrolia Roll Eyes
July 06, 2008, 14:12
arnie
Etymology Online says that the earliest spelling was tyre.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
July 06, 2008, 14:31
tinman
The OED Online says they were spelled "indifferently" from the 15th to the 17th century.
quote:
tire, n.2
[Probably the same word as prec., the tire being originally (sense 1) the ‘attire’, ‘clothing’, or ‘accoutrement’ of the wheel. From 15th to 17th c. spelt (like prec.) tire and tyre indifferently. Before 1700 tyre became generally obsolete, and tire remained as the regular form, as it still does in America; but in Great Britain tyre was revived in the nineteenth cent. as the popular term for the rubber rim of bicycle, tricycle, carriage, or motor-car wheels, and is sometimes used for the steel tires of locomotive wheels. During the twentieth cent. tyre became standard in the British Isles.]

I'm tyred now. I think I'll go lie down.