Shīre, n.
(Synop., § 130), n. [A.-S. scire, scir, a division, province, county, from sciran, sceran, to shear, cut off, divide. See SHEAR and SHARE.]
Sense 1. A portion of the kingdom, originally under the supervision of an earl; a territorial division, usually identical with a county, but sometimes comprising a smaller district; as, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Richmondshire, Hallamshire. [Eng.]
An indefinite number of these hundreds make up a shire or county. Blackstone.
Sense 2. A division of a state, embracing several contiguous townships; a county. [U. S.]
☞ In some States, shire is used solely as the constituent part of the name of a county, as Berkshire, Hampshire, in Massachusetts. These being the names established by law, we say, the county of Berkshire (which in England would be considered tautological), and we can not with propriety say, the county of Berks, there being no county thus named in the State.
☞ Walker observes that “this word, when unaccented at the end of words, as Nottinghamshire, Wiltshire, &c., is always pronounced with the i like ee; and this statement is repeated by some of the orthoepists and lexicographers who have succeeded him. But whatever may have been the practice of Walker’s own day, it is certain that in present English usage, this word, when used as a termination, is invariably pronounced shir or shur. American usage is not quite uniform, but inclines decidedly to the same pronunciation.”