Re: OT: dadgum shire reaves

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:30:09 -0000, caeruleancentaur
<caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:

>Man, little excites me more than good old English vocabulary!!  In my
>reading recently I came across a plural of "sheriff."  I'm
>embarrassed to say that I can't remember it exactly.  It was
>something like "shreaves."  There is an adjective "shrieval," of or
>pertaining to....  I assume the accent on the penult is because, in
>the original compound "shire reave," the accent would have been
>on "shire."
>
>Not to be confused with the Arabic import "sherif" (also "sharif")
>with the accent on the ultimate.
>
>Charlie
>http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur
I didn't think about "sheriff" being related to "shire reeve" until I read
your message.  So I decided to look up its etymology. :)

Turns out the compound is older than you think.  According to the Microsoft
Encarta Dictionary, "sheriff" comes from Old English sci:rgere:fa,
literally "shire reeve" (sci:r + gere:fa).  The stress would indeed have
been on the first syllable, but how "sci:rgere:fa" became "sheriff" is
beyond me, though I have heard that some English compounds reduce both
members.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?

- Rob