Etymologically
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shire

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ʃaɪə/[1]
  • US: /ʃaɪ(ə)ɹ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shire, also schire,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English sċīr (“official charge, administrative office; district”),[5][2][6][7] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skīru (“district; office”).[1][2] Its only known Germanic relative is Old High German scīra (“care, official charge”), found in just two glosses,[5][3][2] and the Germanic form may have been Proto-Germanic *skīrō or Proto-Germanic *skīzō.[5] Barnhart and the OED mention a suggested link, through a reconstructed form older than Germanic, Proto-Indo-European *skeisā-, with Latin cūra (“care”), the source of cure;[5][3][8] Hoad calls the origin uncertain.[7] Weekley rejects any connection with shear,[9] which Johnson had implied by deriving the word from a verb meaning "to divide".[10] Sheriff is a compound based on it.[8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the word first meant an official charge or administrative office, such as that of a steward, bishop or governor, before 800 in the Corpus Glossary;[5][3] this sense did not outlive the Old English period.[8][5]

Semantic evolution

By the 9th century the word was used for an area ruled by a governor,[8] and also for a bishop's see or simply a region or country, a use that lasted until 1824.[5] Over the next hundred years it came to name what is now called a county: in late Anglo-Saxon England, a district made up of smaller hundreds or wapentakes under an ealdorman and a sheriff.[8][5][4] County, from Anglo-French, arrived in the 14th century and gradually replaced it.[8][2] The word survives as the last element of county names such as Yorkshire and Berkshire, from 1064 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[5] The Shires was used, from before 1796, by people in East Anglia, Kent, Sussex, Essex and Surrey for the other counties, especially those whose names end in -shire,[5][2][9] and by about 1860 for the fox-hunting country of the Midlands.[2][5] The shire horse, short shire from 1877, is said to be named after the breed's origin in the Shires.[5][12][13] Since 1909 a shire has also been a rural district with its own council in Australia.[5][12] In East Anglian dialect a shireman was, with some contempt, anyone born outside East Anglia or Essex.[14]

Timeline

  • before 800 – an official charge or office (Old English only).[5][3]
  • 800s – an area ruled by a governor.[8]
  • 1010 – the inhabitants of a shire, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[5]
  • 1064 – as the last element of county names.[5]
  • before 1200 – Middle English schire.[3]
  • before 1796 – the Shires, the counties beyond East Anglia and the South-East.[5][2]
  • 1810 – verb, to divide into shires.[5]
  • 1860 – the Shires, the hunting country of the Midlands.[5][2]
  • 1877 – short for Shire horse.[5]
  • 1909 – a rural administrative district in Australia.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A county of Great Britain, especially of England; also the last part of county names, as in Lancashire: She grew up in the shires.[12][4][5]
  2. In Anglo-Saxon England, an administrative district made up of smaller districts, ruled by an alderman and a sheriff.[4][5]
  3. In Australia, a rural district with its own local council.[12][4][5]
  4. the Shires: the counties of the English Midlands, especially Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, known for fox hunting.[12][5]
  5. A shire horse.[12][5]
  6. An administrative subdivision of colonial America.[4]

Verb

  1. To divide a region into shires.[4][5]

Word family

  • Bedfordshire
  • Monmouthshire
  • Yorkshire
  • shire horse
  • shire town

Usage notes

An adjective shire, bright, clear or pure, from Old English scīr (“bright, clear”) and related to shine and sheer, is unrelated to the noun; it was used until the 18th century,[5][15] and lingered in Scots and northern dialect for clear or thin liquids, thin cloth and scanty crops.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press