pare

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English paren,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French parer (“to arrange, prepare; trim, adorn”) and directly borrowed from Latin parō (“to make ready, prepare”).^[2][5][3][6] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1120–40, already including "to pare, trim".^[7] In Old French the word was first "to adorn" (late 10th century), and more specialized senses appear later: to strip a tree (about 1170), to peel fruit (about 1215) and to cut the crust from bread (1383).^[5] Hoad says that the Latin verb acquired such specialized uses in Romance.^[8] The Latin verb has the same base as pariō (“to produce, bring forth”),^[5][6][3][9] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *pere- (“to produce, procure”) and Barnhart to *per-, to bear.^[3][6] Klein and Barnhart compare Ancient Greek πόρις (póris, “calf”) while Klein and Merriam-Webster also compare Old English fearr (“bull”).^[4][6][10] Barnhart calls the word a doublet of parry.^[6] Johnson (1755) reports Skinner's view that it came from the French phrase parer les ongles, used of a farrier dressing a horse's hooves.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To trim by cutting: about 1300, in Pilate.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300 as well, as "to peel fruit, to cut off the crust of bread",^[3] and Barnhart finds it probably before 1300 in Sir Tristrem.^[6]

Semantic evolution

English took only the cutting sense at first; the French and Latin "to prepare, adorn" is recorded separately, and only from 1393 to 1693.^[5] Weekley notes that the word was early limited to cutting away in thin layers.^[9] From the late 14th century it was used more generally for trimming by cutting or scraping off an outer layer,^[3] as in the Wycliffite Bible,^[5] and for pruning, in Trevisa.^[5] The sense "to reduce little by little" is dated to before 1475 in the OED,^[5] and to the 1520s in Etymonline,^[3] which records pare down from the late 15th century.^[3] The figurative "to cut off as superfluous" follows in 1549,^[5] and agriculture had pare and burn, to slice off turf and burn it as manure, from 1530.^[5][12] Johnson (1755) already combines the senses "to cut off the surface" and "to diminish".^[11] Wright records further dialect senses: to prune in west Somerset, to thrash someone in Devon, and of cattle or sheep to eat a pasture bare in north Yorkshire.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to trim by cutting.^[5][3]
• before 1382 – to cut off an outer rind or surface.^[5]
• 1393 – to prepare, adorn (obsolete by 1693).^[5]
• before 1398 – to prune shoots.^[5]
• before 1425 – noun, a paring or peeling.^[5]
• before 1475 – to reduce by small stages.^[5] Etymonline dates this to the 1520s.^[3]
• 1530 – to slice turf from land.^[5]
• 1538 – to pare to the quick.^[5]
• 1549 – figuratively, to cut off as superfluous.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut off the skin or outer layer of something: She pared the quinces and sliced them thin.^[13][10][5]
2. To trim something by cutting away its edges or irregular parts, as the nails or a hoof: The farrier pared the mare's hooves.^[13][10][5]
3. To reduce something gradually, often with down: The firm pared down its staff over two years.^[13][10][5]
4. To thin leather.^[10]
5. To prune a hedge or trees (now rare).^[5][14][12]
6. To slice the turf from a field (archaic).^[10][5][14]

Noun

1. Something pared off; a peeling or shaving (Shetland and northern Irish English).^[5]

Word family

• parer
• pareable
• unpared
• cheeseparing
• paring
• paring knife

Related words

• parry
• prepare
• repair
• apparatus
• apparel
• parade
• separate
• sever
• emperor
• rampart
• parent
• pair
• pear

Usage notes

Separate words of this spelling are the obsolete verb pare, to compare, a shortening of compare used from about 1450 to 1770,^[5][2] and a New Zealand noun for a carved lintel in a traditional Māori building, from Māori pare, recorded from 1897.^[5][14] Dictionary.com warns against confusing the verb with pair and pear.^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House