Other forms: reared, rearing, rears
Rear means at or belonging to the back. Rear window, the rear door, bring up the rear.
It is the formal word where back is the everyday one, and it belongs to vehicles and buildings more than to people. To rear a child is a different word, meaning to raise. A horse rears when it stands on its hind legs. Note rear-view mirror.
1adjectiverearAt or belonging to the back.
“The rear door of the car wouldn't open, so the kids climbed in the front.”
2verbraiseTo raise a child or an animal.
“They rear sheep and goats on their farm in the hills.”
rear is a position at the back.
The back sense comes from Old French rere, from Latin retro, backwards. The raising sense is Old English raeran, to raise.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁rey- — to lift oneself, rise
Proto-Germanic
*raizijaną
Proto-West Germanic
*raiʀijan
Old English
rǣran — to raise, set upright, promote, exalt, begin, create, give rise to, excite, rouse, arouse, stir up
Middle English
reren — to raise
English, today
rear
Built from
From Middle English reren (“to raise”), from Old English rǣran (“to raise, set upright, promote, exalt, begin, create, give rise to, excite, rouse, arouse, stir up”), from Proto-West Germanic raiʀijan, from Proto-Germanic raizijaną, raisijaną (“to cause to rise, raise”), from Proto-Indo-European h₁rey- (“to lift oneself, rise”). Cognate with Scots rere (“to construct, build, rear”), Icelandic reisa (“to raise”), Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (“to cause to rise, lift up, establish”), German reisen (“to travel”) literally “to rear up and depart”; and a a doublet of raise. More at rise. Related to rise and raise, which is used for several of its now archaic or obsolete senses and for some of its senses that are currently more common in other dialects of English.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA