> tyre - not 'tire'The etymology is quite interesting, and...

> tyre - not 'tire'

The etymology is quite interesting, and reflects changes in culture and technology over the centuries. From Wikipedia:

The word tire is a short form of attire, from the idea that a wheel with a tire is a dressed wheel. Tyre is the oldest spelling, and both tyre and tire were used during the 15th and 16th centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, tire became more common in print. The spelling tyre did not reappear until the 1840s when the English began shrink-fitting railway car wheels with malleable iron. Nevertheless, many publishers continued using tire. The Times newspaper in London was still using tire as late as 1905. The spelling tyre began to be commonly used in the 19th century for pneumatic tires in the UK. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica states that "The spelling 'tyre' is not now accepted by the best English authorities, and is unrecognized in the US", while Fowler's Modern English Usage of 1926 describes that "there is nothing to be said for 'tyre', which is etymologically wrong, as well as needlessly divergent from our own [sc. British] older & the present American usage". However, over the 20th century, tyre became established as the standard British spelling.