shire

Meanings

1. An administrative area or district between about the 5th to the 11th century, subdivided into hundreds or wapentakes and jointly governed by an ealdorman and a sheriff; also, a present-day area corresponding to such a historical district; a county; especially (England), a county having a name ending in -shire.
2. The people living in a shire (noun sense 1.1) considered collectively.
3. The general area in which a person comes from or lives.
4. An administrative area or district in other countries.
5. An outer suburban or rural local government area which elects its own council.
6. Ellipsis of shire horse (“a draught horse of a tall British breed, usually bay, black, or grey”).
7. A district or province governed by a person; specifically (Christianity), the province of an archbishop, the see of a bishop, etc.
8. A region; also, a country.

1. To constitute or reconstitute (a country or region) into one or more shires (noun sense 1.1) or counties.

1. A surname.
2. A placename
3. A river in Malawi and Mozambique

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English schire (“region, shire, county”) [and other forms], from Old English sċīr (“administrative region under an alderman and sheriff, shire; district under a governor or official; status of an official, office”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *skīru (“district; status of an official, office”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Latin cūra (“care, concern; administration, charge, management; command, office”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeys- (“to heed; to see”). The verb is derived from the noun.