shire

C2 Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ʃaɪ(ə)ɹ/ UK /ʃaɪə/ See IPA manual

Freq #30376

Meanings

1

noun
a county or traditional administrative district, especially in Britain

The road crossed the northern shire.
2

noun
the people or countryside of such a district

Half the shire had heard the news by morning.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a county or traditional... county district

Word family

Forms shires

Derived forms bedfordshireblankshireloamshiremonmouthshireshire-reeveshiremanshiremootshiremoteshiresyorkshire

Related forms sheriff

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

shire town
the town serving as the administrative center of a county

Noun + noun

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.

*kʷeys- Proto-Indo-European schire Middle English sċīr Old English *skīru Proto-West Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# shire

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ʃaɪ(ə)ɹ/
**IPA (UK):** /ʃaɪə/
**Frequency rank:** 30376

## Meanings
1. a county or traditional administrative district, especially in Britain
2. the people or countryside of such a district

## Examples
- The road crossed the northern shire.
- Half the shire had heard the news by morning.

## Synonyms
- county
- district

## Derived Forms
- bedfordshire
- blankshire
- loamshire
- monmouthshire
- shire-reeve
- shireman
- shiremoot
- shiremote
- shires
- yorkshire

## Related Forms
- sheriff

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *kʷeys-
- Root: schire
- Root: sċīr
- Root: *skīru

## 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.

## AI Etymology
shire is a noun meaning a county or traditional administrative district, especially in Britain. 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.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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