shire
pronunciation
How to pronounce shire in British English:
UK [ˈʃaɪə(r)]
How to pronounce shire in American English:
US [ʃaɪr]
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- Noun:
- a former administrative district of England; equivalent to a county
- British breed of large heavy draft horse
Word Origin
- shire
- shire: [OE] The original meaning of shire, which did not survive beyond the Old English period, was ‘official charge, administrative office’, and it has been suggested that the word is related ultimately to Latin cūra ‘care, charge’ (source of English curate, cure, etc). Already by the 9th century it was being used for an ‘administrative area ruled by a governor’, and over the next hundred years the application to what is now known as a county emerged. (County itself was introduced in the 14th century, and gradually ousted shire.) Sheriff is a compound based on shire.=> sheriff
- shire (n.)
- Old English scir "administrative office, jurisdiction, stewardship, authority," also in particular use "district, province, country," from Proto-Germanic *skizo (cognates: Old High German scira "care, official charge"). Ousted since 14c. by Anglo-French county. The gentrified sense is from The Shires (1796), used by people in other parts of England of those counties that end in -shire; sense transferred to "hunting country of the Midlands" (1860).
Example
- 1. He returns to his family in the peaceful shire .
- 2. The sprawling park , to be built in wyong shire , about 50 miles north of sydney , will also feature a nine-story temple housing a giant buddha and a mini-city modelled on chinese water towns .
- 3. Both are now members of the macdonnell shire , the local government body covering their region .
- 4. But it cannot stay in the shire !
- 5. Egyptian metalworking and tools ( shire egyptology )