yark

English

From Middle English ȝarken, ȝerken, from Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”), Proto-West Germanic *garwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *garwakōną (“to prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to grab, take, rake”), equivalent to yare +‎ -k. Related to Old English ġearc (“ready, active, quick”), ġearu (“prepared, ready, equipped, complete, finished, yare”). More at yare.

yark (third-person singular simple present yarks, present participle yarking, simple past and past participle yarked)

(transitive, UK dialectal) To make ready; prepare.
- 1881, Walter Gregor, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland:
  [...] Yet thou hast given us leather to yark, and leather to bark, [...]
(transitive, obsolete) To dispose; be set in order for; be destined or intended for.
(transitive, obsolete) To set open; open.

Uncertain, probably originally imitative; compare jerk etc.

yark (third-person singular simple present yarks, present participle yarking, simple past and past participle yarked)

To draw (stitches etc.) tight.
To hit, strike, especially with a cane or whip.
To crack (a whip).
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
  , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.96:
  he would throw a Dagger, and make a whip to yarke and lash [tr. faisoit craqueter], as cunningly as any Carter in France.

From Middle English arke, from Old English ærc, from Latin arca (“chest, box, coffer”). Compare also yart (“art”).

yark

Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 79

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