Etymology

sailyard

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Today it means: A yard (spar or shaft) to which the sails of a ship are bent (tied or fastened to). Full definition →

Middle English saylyerde ← Old English seġlġyrd ← Proto-West Germanic *seglagaʀdī
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*seglagaʀdī
  2. Old English · inherited fromseġlġyrd
  3. Middle English · inherited fromsaylyerde
  4. English todaysailyard

From Middle English saylyerde, sailyerd, seilȝerd, from Old English seġlġyrd, seġelġyrd (“sailyard”), from Proto-West Germanic *seglagaʀdī and *seglagaʀd (“sailyard, mast”, literally “sail-rod, sail-staff”), equivalent to sail + yard (“staff, rod, stick”). Cognate with German Segelgerte.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.