"COUNTY" AND "SHIRE"
Sir-I can see that the writer of "Things to Come" is quite capable of looking after himself, but one just wonders of "Jonaitch" should not read " Jona-itch." Personally I like "Things to Come" and a paragraph entitled "From Shire to Shire" with the remark " Shire; a much more historic and Robin Hoodish word than County," sent me to an old book called On the Study of Words, by Richard Chenevise Trench, and he gives this interesting information: "Shire is connected with shear, share, and is properly a portion sheared or shorn off. When a Saxon King would create an earl... a share or shire was assigned him to govern, which also gave him his title. But at the conquest this Saxon officer was displaced by a Norman, the earl by the count... . In that singular and inexplicable fortune of words, which causes some to disappear and die out under the circumstances most favourable for life. . . . Count has disappeared from the title of the English nobility, while earl has recovered its place; although in evidence of the essential identity of the two titles, the wife of the earl is entitled a countess .. . and the two names shire and county equally survive." I am aware that the Oxford Dictionary denies that Shire has anything to do with shear or share, but I prefer to accept Trench. j
OLIVER
(Te Awamutu). |
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19420710.2.8.5
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 159, 10 July 1942, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
231"COUNTY" AND "SHIRE" New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 159, 10 July 1942, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in