shirreve
Middle English
Alternative forms
- (Early Middle English) scirereve, scyrreve, scirreve
- shirryf, schireve, schirref, scheryfe, schereffe, scherreve, schereref, shyryf, shyrrefe, sherryff, shreve
Etymology
From Old English sċīrġerēfa; equivalent to shire (“shire”) + reve.
The presence of /f/ in variant forms may be due to analogy with nouns that end with /f/ in the singular, but have /v/ in the plural such as leef and thef.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈʃireːv(ə)/, /ˈʃ(ɛ)reːv(ə)/, /ˈʃiːreːv(ə)/, /ˈʃɛriv(ə)/, /ˈʃirif(ə)/, /ˈʃɛrif(ə)/
Noun
shirreve (plural shireves)
- A sheriff; a person responsible for a number of different tasks, including law enforcement and judicial responsibilities.
- Any administrative deputy or official.
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- “shī̆r-rẹ̄̆ve, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 31 April 2018.