Etymograph

English

tire

Tire comes from Middle English tiren ‘to exhaust, tire’, from Proto-West Germanic *teuʀōn ‘to fail, cease’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dews- ‘to lack, need, require’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dews-1‘to lack, need, require’uncertain
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*teuʀōn2‘to fail, cease’uncertain
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150tēorian2‘to tire, faint, fail, cease’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tiren2‘to exhaust, tire’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2012tire2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *teuʀōn
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English tire
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, Phil McNulty, Moldova 0-5 England: “As Moldova understandably tired after a night of ball…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dews-Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *teuʀōn‘to lack, need, require’uncertain
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*teuʀōnWiktionary, English tire‘to fail, cease’uncertain
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150tēorianWiktionary, English tire‘to tire, faint, fail, cease’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tirenWiktionary, English tire‘to exhaust, tire’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2012tireWiktionary, English tire. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, Phil McNulty, Moldova 0-5 England: “As Moldova understandably tired after a night of ball…”

The story

Possibly from Proto-West Germanic *teuʀōn (‘to cease’), which is possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dews- (‘to fail, be behind, lag’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *dews-

Another origin of tire

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tir(e)‘equipment, furnshings, ornament’uncertain
  2. Englishtodaytire

Today it means

verb To become sleepy or weary.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tire”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Proto-West Germanic *teuʀōn. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dews- / tire

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