Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French garbe (Middle French, French gerbe ) wheatsheaf (late 12th cent. in Old French), bundle of metal rods, bundle of arrows (mid 13th cent. in Anglo-Norman, 1396 in continental French) < an unattested Frankish cognate of Old Dutch garva (recorded only in plural garauon ; Middle Dutch garf , garve , Dutch garf ), Old Saxon garva (Middle Low German garve ), Old High German garba (Middle High German garbe , German Garbe ), all in the sense ‘sheaf, especially wheatsheaf’ < a by-form (with metathesis) of the Germanic base of grab v.Compare post-classical Latin garba wheatsheaf (frequently from 8th cent. in British and continental sources), tithe paid on grain (frequently from 11th cent. in British sources), measure of iron or steel (probably with reference to a bundle of metal rods) (frequently from late 12th cent. in British sources), Old Occitan garba wheatsheaf ( < Germanic). Compare also Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French jarbe , which shows the expected central French initial consonant reflecting palatalization. The following quot. probably shows post-classical Latin garba , used in proximity to vernacular reede (showing either reed n.¹ or the Anglo-Norman borrowing of this word):a1395 in Archaeologia (1832) 24 313 [Paid for] ml ml garb' de reede [bought for covering the said timber].

Etymology: < (i) Middle French garbe (French galbe ) grace, elegance (1551), curved outline of a work of art (although this is first attested slightly later than in English: 1676 as galbe ), and its etymon (ii) Italian garbo form (a1529), grace, elegance (a1537), curved outline of a work of art (a1574), probably < garbare to be pleasant (15th cent.) < the Germanic base of Old English gierwan to prepare (see yare v., and compare gar v.).Compare Spanish garbo (early 16th cent.), Portuguese garbo (late 16th cent.), both < Italian. Modern French galbe shows substitution of l for r . With sense 2b compare post-classical Latin eiusdem farinae (late 15th cent.; compare of the same meal at meal n.¹ 1d).

Etymology: < garb n.²Compare Middle French garber to adorn oneself (1575, reflexive; French galber now only in the sense ‘to give a slight curvature to (an object)’ (1676 in this sense), with substitution of l for r ; compare discussion at garb n.²).