name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
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"Yorkshire is the largest shire in England."
"You, my love, are a little paragon—positively a little jewel—You have more brains than half the shire— […]"
"When are you coming back to the shire?"
"[T]his old Evil-queſtioning asked the Doubters if they vvere all of a Tovvn, (he knevv that they vvere all of one Kingdom)? and they anſvvered no, nor not of one Shire neither; […]"
"A third Seignorie or Shire there is that goeth to Apamia, vvhich in old time vvas called Celænæ, and aftervvards Ciboron: […]"
"And Thyatira. It is a Citie of Lydia which is a ſhyre of Aſia the leſſe, the habitation of the Macedones, and of ſome the laſt Citie of the Myſians."
"County Longford was shired in 1586."
"And certainly our current language differs considerably from that which was used and spoken when I was born. For we Englishmen are born under the domination of the moon, which is never steadfast but ever wavering, waxing one season and waning and decreasing another season. And that common English spoken in one shire varies from another, to such an extent that in my days it happened that certain merchants were in a ship on the Thames to sail over the sea to Zealand, and for lack of wind, they tarried at headland, and went to the shore to refresh themselves. And one of them named Sheffield, a mercer, came into a house and asked for food, and specifically he asked for 'egges', and the good woman answered that she could speak no French. And the merchant was angry, for he could also speak no French, but wanted to have 'egges', and she didn't understand him. And then at last another said that he wanted 'eyren', then the good woman said that she understood him well. Lo! what should a man in these days now write, 'egges' or 'eyren'? Certainly it is hard to please every man, because of diversity and change of language."
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.
Common synonyms include: archbishopric, archdiocese, arrondissement, bailiwick, bishopric, borough.
And certainly our current language differs considerably from that which was used and spoken when I was born. For we Englishmen are born under the domination of the moon, which is never steadfast but ever wavering, waxing one season and waning and decreasing another season. And that common English spoken in one shire varies from another, to such an extent that in my days it happened that certain merchants were in a ship on the Thames to sail over the sea to Zealand, and for lack of wind, they tarried at headland, and went to the shore to refresh themselves. And one of them named Sheffield, a mercer, came into a house and asked for food, and specifically he asked for 'egges', and the good woman answered that she could speak no French. And the merchant was angry, for he could also speak no French, but wanted to have 'egges', and she didn't understand him. And then at last another said that he wanted 'eyren', then the good woman said that she understood him well. Lo! what should a man in these days now write, 'egges' or 'eyren'? Certainly it is hard to please every man, because of diversity and change of language.
Pronounced /ʃaɪə/.
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.
English and Irish surname, from shire.