Etymology

sheriff

sher·iff
S1H4E1R1I1F4F4

Today it means: (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties. Full definition →

Middle English shirreve ← Old English sċīrġerēfa
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sheriff · noun, verb1

  1. Old English · inherited fromsċīrġerēfa
  2. Middle English · inherited fromshirreve
  3. English todaysheriff

Inherited from Middle English shirreve, in turn inherited from Old English sċīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire + reeve. There is no etymological connection to sharif (Arabic شَرِيف (šarīf)), an Arabic title of honour with cognates in other languages, including Persian, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.

Sheriff · proper noun2

From sheriff.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishsċīrġerēfa all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.