garb

Etymology 1

From Middle French garbe ("graceful outline, silhouette"; > Modern French galbe), from Italian garbo (“grace, elegance”), from Germanic (compare Old High German garwi, garawi (“dress, equipment, preparation”), Middle High German gerwe (“outfitting, jewelry, clothing, robe, regalia”), modern German Gärbe, Gerbe and English gear), ultimately from Frankish *garwijan (“to prepare”), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną (“to prepare”).

noun

  1. Fashion, style of dressing oneself up.
  2. A type of dress or clothing.
  3. (figurative) A guise, external appearance.

verb

  1. (transitive) To dress in garb.

Etymology 2

From French gerbe; akin to German Garbe. Doublet of gerbe.

noun

  1. (heraldry) A wheat sheaf.
  2. A measure of arrows in the Middle Ages.
    Yorkshire supplied 500 bows, and 580 garbs of arrows, 360 of which had iron heads pointed with steel. 1957, H. R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 118

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