SHIRE  , one of the larger administrative divisions, in

Great Britain, now generally synonymous with " county " (q.v.), but the word is still used of smaller districts, such as Richmondshire and Hallamshire in Yorkshire, Norhamshire and Hexhamshire in Northumberland . The Anglo-Saxon shire (O . Eng. stir) was an administrative division next above the hundred and was presided over by the caldorman and the sheriff (the shire-reeve) . The word stir, according to Skeat (Etym . Diet., 191o), meant originally office, charge, administration; thus in a vocabulary of the 8th century (Wright-Wiilcker, Anglo-Saxon and Old 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 " share," and makes the original meaning to have been a part cut off .