Origin and history of attire

"row, rank, range," particularly where two or more are one above the other, mid-15c., tire, tyre, from Old French tire (13c.) "rank, sequence, order, kind," also "likeness, image; state, condition," probably from tirer "to draw, draw out" (see tirade). As a verb, "build or arrange in tiers," by 1888. Related: Tiered.

late 15c., "iron plates forming a rim of a carriage wheel," probably from an extended use of tire "equipment, dress, covering, trappings or accoutrements of a knight" (c. 1300, tir), a shortened form of attire (n.). The notion would be of the tire as the "dressing" of the wheel. Theory that it is tie-er has been discarded.

Tire (n.) also was used late 15c. of a decorative metal edging for a bell. Also compare Middle English tirement "adornment, ornaments" (c. 1400, from Old French atirement); tirewoman "lady's maid, woman who dresses others" (1610s). Also the theatrical tiring-house (1580s) or tiring-room (1620s), where players dress for the stage.

The oldest spelling was tyre, which had shifted to tire in 17c.-18c., but since early 19c. tyre has revived in Great Britain and become standard there. Rubber tires, for bicycles (later automobiles) were in use from 1877. A tire-iron originally was one of the iron plates; as a length of steel flat at one end and used to separate a tire from a wheel, by 1909.

word-forming element expressing direction toward or in addition to, from Latin ad "to, toward" in space or time; "with regard to, in relation to," as a prefix, sometimes merely emphatic, from PIE root *ad- "to, near, at."

Simplified to a- before sc-, sp- and st-; modified to ac- before many consonants and then re-spelled af-, ag-, al-, etc., in conformity with the following consonant (as in affection, aggression). Also compare ap- (1).

In Old French, reduced to a- in all cases (an evolution already underway in Merovingian Latin), but French refashioned its written forms on the Latin model in 14c., and English did likewise 15c. in words it had picked up from Old French. In many cases pronunciation followed the shift.

Over-correction at the end of the Middle Ages in French and then English "restored" the -d- or a doubled consonant to some words that never had it (accursed, afford). The process went further in England than in France (where the vernacular sometimes resisted the pedantic), resulting in English adjourn, advance, address, advertisement (Modern French ajourner, avancer, adresser, avertissement). In modern word-formation sometimes ad- and ab- are regarded as opposites, but this was not in classical Latin.