1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scabbard

SCABBARD, the sheath of a sword. The early forms of the word given in the Promptorium parvularum are scauberk, scaubert or scauberd. The termination is certainly from the Teutonic bergen, to protect, as seen in “hauberk,” “hawberk” (i.e. halsberg), literally a protection for the neck and shoulders, hence the “long tunic of mail” of the 12th century (see Arms and Armour). The first part is doubtful; Skeat takes it as representing the O. Fr. escale, mod. écaille, shell, Ger. Schale; the word would therefore mean an outer sheath or shell that covers or protects.