means A single drop of tears, or anything shaped like one — rounded at the bottom and tapering to a point at the top.

from A plain compound of two old Germanic words: 'tear,' from Old English 'tēar' (a cousin of words across the Germanic family and ultimately related to a root meaning simply 'tear' or 'eye-drop'), plus 'drop,' from Old English 'dropa,' a small rounded blob of liquid. Put them together and you get exactly what it says — a drop of tears — though the word has since drifted to describe the shape itself, from earrings to trailers.