yard

Note: The above is only one possible account of this somewhat problematic etymon. If not from a Verner's Law variant of a putative stem *ghor-to-, the Germanic word could go back to *ghordho-, which would correspond to Slavic *gordŭ (Old Church Slavic gradŭ "town, garden, yard," Russian górod "city," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian grâd) and Lithuanian gar͂das "pen, fold." The Slavic and Baltic words have, alternatively, been taken as loans from Germanic. This explanation would not, however, cover Albanian gardh "fence, wattled partition," or, more crucially, Sanskrit gṛháḥ "house," if it goes back to *ghr̥dhos, a zero-grade derivative. The Germanic etymon has traditionally been connected with a hypothetical verb base *ǵher- "grasp, enclose," seen in Sanskrit harati "(s/he) takes, fetches, bears," jahrur "were fetched," though the Albanian, Balto-Slavic and Sanskrit words do not show a palatovelar. A palatovelar is evidenced, however, in a group of semantically related words: Lithuanian žárdas "rack for drying grain, flax or pease, cattle hurdle," ža͂rdis "fenced pasture," Old Prussian sardis "fence," regional Russian zoród, zaród "stack of hay or grain sheaves, enclosure around a stack." Also associated with Germanic *garđa- is a strong verb *gerđan- hypothetically evidenced by Gothic *-gairdan (attested only as the past participle bigaurdans, translating Greek perizōsámenos "girding oneself") and a weak verb *gurdjan- with zero grade—see gird entry 1, girdle entry 1, girth entry 1.