Etymology

cp. OIcel gervi, gørvi ‘gear, apparel’ without palatalization  < PGmc *garwj-; cp. OE gearwe ‘clothing’, OS garwi, OHG garawī. 

PGmc Ancestor

*garwj-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

gervi, gørvi ‘gear, apparel’ 
(ONP gervi (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Icel gervi

OE Cognate

gearwe ‘clothing’

Phonological and morphological markers

absence of palatalization of */ɡ/

Summary category

A1*

Attestation

Widespread from early ME and in MnE.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 569, 584, 1470; Cl 16, 1505, 1811, Pat 148; WA 131, 790*, 2129 etc.

On the sense at Cl 16, see Anderson and Vantuono 16n. On the sense at WA 824*, which (together with 1773) TPD glosses as a separate n., see their note 825.

Bibliography

MED gēre (n.) , OED gear (n.) , HTOED , HTOED , EDD gear (sb. and v.), Dance gere (c)(n.), Bj. 151, 307, de Vries gervi, gørvi, gjǫrvi, Mag gervi, Heid. garwa-, Orel *ʒarwīn ~ *ʒarwjō, AEW gearwe (2)