Borrowed from French équiper, from Middle French esquiper, from Old French esquiper, eschiper (“to board a ship, set sail”), partly from Old English scipian (“to board a ship, set sail”) and partly from Old Norse skipa (“to arrange, prepare a ship, equip”); both from Proto-Germanic *skipōną (“to ship, sail, embark”), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“ship”). More at ship. Compare with English equip. By surface analysis, equipa /equipe + -ar.