Etymology: Origin uncertain; compare post-classical Latin pera , which is first attested in a Latin version of the same document in which the English word is first attested (see below), and which is recorded in the senses ‘pier of a bridge’ (frequently from c1125 in British sources) and ‘pier of a harbour’ (1391 in a British source). The English word is perhaps < Anglo-Norman pere , variant of piere stone (see pier n.²), and the Latin word in turn from the English: for comment on the phonology see A. J. Bliss ‘Vowel-Quantity in Middle English Borrowings from Anglo-Norman’ in Archivum Linguisticum 4 (1952) §18.Post-classical Latin pera is first attested in a Latin version of the Old English charter cited in quot. lOE at sense 1 (see quot. c1125). Both versions occur in the same manuscript, the Latin preceding the English; however, neither version seems to have been derived directly from the other, and internal evidence indicates that the Latin version goes back to an earlier English original (compare the use of suliva for Old English syll sill n.¹, glossed on its first appearance):c1125 List of Estates Liable for Work on Rochester Bridge in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1893) III. 657 Primum ejusdem civitatis episcopus incipit operari in orientali brachio [pontis] primam peram de terra: deinde tres virgatas plancas ponere, et tres suliuas, id est tres magnas trabes supponere... Secunda pera pertinet ad gillingeham, et de cætham [etc.]. Perhaps compare Old French (Hainaut, Flanders, and Picardy) pire breakwater which maintains water at a fixed level, sort of lock (mid 13th cent.), although the nature of any connection is unclear (see Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch s.v. pēra for a suggested further etymology ultimately < classical Latin pēra satchel (see perula n.), via Middle Dutch). The forms pire, pyre perhaps show raising of the reflex of Middle English close ē to ī.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French piere, pierre building stone (late 10th cent. in Old French as pedra ), stone, rock (c1100), precious stone (c1100) < classical Latin petra stone, rock, occasionally stone as a building material (see petro- comb. form¹), in post-classical Latin also precious stone (1300, c1500 in British sources). Compare Old Occitan peira (a1150).In franche pier n. at main sense after Old French franche pierre (see freestone n. and adj.); compare Anglo-Norman pere fraunche (1313 or earlier). In precious pier n. at main sense after Middle French pierre precieuse (14th cent.; early 12th cent. in Old French as pere preciuse; French pierre précieuse); compare Old Occitan peira precioza (late 12th cent.).

Etymology: < pier n.¹In sense 1951 at sense 2 probably punningly after peer v.³