different between harness vs gear

English

Etymology

From Middle English harneys, harnes, harneis, harnais, herneis, from Anglo-Norman harneis and Old French hernois (“equipment used in battle”), believed to be from Old Norse *hernest, from Old Norse heer (“army”) + nest (“provisions”). More at harry.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h??(?).n?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)n?s

Noun

harness (countable and uncountable, plural harnesses)

1. (countable) A restraint or support, especially one consisting of a loop or network of rope or straps.
2. (countable) A collection of wires or cables bundled and routed according to their function.
3. (dated, uncountable) The complete dress, especially in a military sense, of a man or a horse; armour in general.
   • 1606 William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act V, scene V

     Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!

     At least we'll die with harness on our back.

4. The part of a loom comprising the heddles, with their means of support and motion, by which the threads of the warp are alternately raised and depressed for the passage of the shuttle.
5. Equipment for any kind of labour.

Alternative forms

• harnass (rare, archaic)

Derived terms

• harnessed antelope
• harnessed moth
• test harness

Translations

Verb

harness (third-person singular simple present harnesses, present participle harnessing, simple past and past participle harnessed)

1. (transitive) To place a harness on something; to tie up or restrain.
2. (transitive) To capture, control or put to use.
3. (transitive) To equip with armour.

Translations

See also

• harness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Harness in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Shaners

English

Etymology

From Middle English gere, a borrowing from Old Norse gervi, from Proto-Germanic *garwijan? (“to prepare”). See also adjective yare, yar from the same root via Old English.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: gîr, IPA^(key): /???(?)/
• (US) enPR: gîr, IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??(r)

Noun

gear (countable and uncountable, plural gears)

1. (uncountable) Equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.
2. Clothing; garments.
3. (obsolete) Goods; property; household items.

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (sometimes spelt Raphe Robynson) (translator), Utopia (originally written by Sir Thomas More)

4. (countable) A wheel with grooves (teeth) engraved on the outer circumference, such that two such devices can interlock and convey motion from one to the other; a gear wheel.

   Synonyms: cog, cogwheel, gearwheel

5. (countable, automotive, cycling) A particular combination or choice of interlocking gears, such that a particular gear ratio is achieved.
6. (countable, automotive) A configuration of the transmission of a motor car so as to achieve a particular ratio of engine to axle torque.
7. (aviation) Ellipsis of landing gear.

8. (slang) Recreational drugs, including steroids.
   • 2003, Marianne Hancock, Looking for Oliver (page 90)

9. (uncountable, archaic) Stuff.
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:

10. (obsolete) Business matters; affairs; concern.
11. (obsolete, Britain, dialect) Anything worthless; nonsense; rubbish.
    • (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)
    • March 29, 1549, Hugh Latimer, the fourth sermon preached before King Edward

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gear (third-person singular simple present gears, present participle gearing, simple past and past participle geared)

1. (engineering, transitive) To provide with gearing; to fit with gears in order to achieve a desired gear ratio.
2. (engineering, intransitive) To be in, or come into, gear.
3. To dress; to put gear on; to harness.
4. (usually with to or toward(s)) To design or devise (something) so as to be suitable (for a particular type of person or a particular purpose).

   This shop is not really geared towards people of our age.

   They have geared the hotel mainly at tourists.

5. (finance) To borrow money in order to invest it in assets.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

gear (comparative more gear, superlative most gear)

1. (chiefly Liverpudlian) great or fantastic

Anagrams

• Ager, GRAE, Gera, Rega, ager, areg, gare, rage

Manx

Alternative forms

• geayr, geyre

Etymology

From Old Irish gér.

Verb

gear (verbal noun gearey)

1. to laugh, chuckle

Adjective

gear

1. sharp, keen
2. sour, acid

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “gér”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Old English

Alternative forms

• ??r, ??r – Anglian

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *j?r?, from Proto-Indo-European *yeh?r-. Cognate with Old Frisian j?r (West Frisian jier), Old Saxon j?r (Middle Low German jâr), Dutch jaar, Old High German j?r (German Jahr), Old Norse ár (Danish/Norwegian/Swedish år, Icelandic/Faroese ár), Gothic ???????????? (j?r). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek ??? (h?ra, “season”), Russian ??? (jara), Czech jaro, Lithuanian jore (“springtime”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jæ???r/

Noun

??ar n (nominative plural ??ar)

1. year
2. the runic character ? (/j/)

Declension

Derived terms

• ??ardagas
• ??arl??
• ?e?ra (uncertain)

Descendants

• Middle English: yeer, here, yere, ?ere
  • English: year
  • Scots: year

Portuguese

Etymology

From an Old Portuguese *gear (compare geo), from Latin gel?re, present active infinitive of gel?. Doublet of the borrowing gelar. Compare also Galician xear.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?i?a?]

Verb

gear (first-person singular present indicative geio, past participle geado)

1. (impersonal) to frost (weather)

Conjugation

Related terms

West Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????r/

Adverb

gear

1. together

Further reading

• “gear (III)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011