Etymology

yr

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Today it means: A letter of the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet, ᚣ, representing the vowel sounds /y/ and /yː/ in Old English. Full definition →

Old English ȳr ← Old Norse ýr
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The story

  1. Old Norse · derived fromýr
  2. Old English · learned borrowing fromȳr
  3. English todayyr

Learned borrowing from Old English ȳr, the literal translation of which is uncertain: perhaps “yew” or “bow (made of yew)”, based on Old Norse ýr.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.