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SHIRE

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 990 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SHIRE , one of the larger administrative divisions, in See also:

GREAT

Great See also:

BRITAIN (Gr. Hperavuml vi7vot, Bperravia; Lat. Britannia, rarely Britannia)

Britain, now generally synonymous with " See also:

COUNTY (through Norm. Fr. comae, cf. O. Fr. cunte, conk', Mod. Fr. comae, from Lat. comitatus, cf. Ital. comitato, Prov. comtat; see COUNT)

county " (q.v.), but the word is still used of smaller districts, such as Richmondshire and Hallamshire in See also:

YORKSHIRE

Yorkshire, Norhamshire and Hexhamshire in See also:

Northumberland. The Anglo-Saxon shire (O. Eng. stir) was an administrative See also:

DIVISION (from Lat. dividere, to break up into parts, separate)

division next above the See also:

HUNDRED

hundred and was presided over by the caldorman and the See also:

SHERIFF

sheriff (the shire-See also:

reeve). The word stir, according to See also:

SKEAT, WALTER WILLIAM (1835– )

Skeat (Etym. See also:

DIET

Diet., 191o), meant originally See also:

OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")

office, See also:

charge, See also:

ADMINISTRATION (Lat. administrare, to serve)

administration; thus in a vocabulary of the 8th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century (See also:

Wright-Wiilcker, Anglo-Saxon and Old See also:

ENGLISH

English Vocabularies, 1884, 40-32) is found procuratio, sciir. Skeat compares 0. Eng. scirian, to distribute, appoint, Ger. Schirrmeister, steward. The usual derivation of the word connects it with " shear " and " See also:

SHARE (O. Eng. scearu, chiefly in compounds, e.g. land-scearu, a share of land, from sceran to cut; cf. " shear" )

share," and makes the See also:

ORIGINAL

original meaning to have been a See also:

PART

part cut off.

End of Article: SHIRE

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SHIRLEY (or SHERLEY), JAMES (1596-1666)