collar

History and Etymology for collar

Noun

latinization of earlier and Middle English coler, borrowed from Anglo-French coler, colere (also continental Old French coler), going back to Latin collāre "neck band, collar," noun derivative from neuter of collāris "of the neck," from collum, collus "neck" + -āris -ar; collum, collus going back to dialectal Indo-European *k^(w)olso-, whence also Germanic *halsa-, whence Old English heals, hals "neck," Old Frisian hals, hāls, Old Saxon, Old High German, Old Icelandic & Gothic hals

Note: Old French also has collier "collar for an animal," going back to Late Latin collārium, attested ca. 500, from collāre by suffix substitution; this is the source of modern French collier "collar." — The etymon *k^(w)olso- is often taken to be based on Indo-European *k^wel- "turn," perhaps as a thematized derivative *k^wels-o-/*k^wols-o- of the s-stem seen in Old Church Slavic koles-, kolo "wheel" (see wheel entry 1). Comparable would be Lithuanian kãklas "neck, throat," from reduplicated *k^wo-k^wl-o, the neck being the body part that turns the head. However, it has been objected that *k^wo- in Germanic would not necessarily lose rounding. The precise formation is in any case limited to Italic and Germanic.

Verb

derivative of collar entry 1