equip: [16] Etymologically, equip means ‘fit out or provide crew for a ship’. Its immediate source was French équiper, but this appears to have been a borrowing from Old Norse skipa ‘fit out a ship’, a verb derived from skip ‘ship’ (first cousin of English ship). The carliest examples of its use in English are in the much broader sense ‘supply with necessary materials’, and its specific links with the sea were soon severed. => ship
