Sheriff

How to spell sheriff

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sheriff

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sheriff mean?

1. nounA senior law-enforcement or judicial officer responsible for a county or district.

Sheriff in a sentence

• The county sheriff was elected for a four-year term.

• Deputies reported directly to the sheriff each morning.

Where does sheriff come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, formed in Old English as scirgerefa from scir, meaning 'shire' or 'county district', and gerefa, meaning a royal official or steward (the source of the modern word 'reeve'). The literal sense was the chief officer who administered the king's interests within a shire, handling justice, taxes, and law enforcement. Over the centuries the long compound was worn down in speech to the simpler 'sheriff', losing the obvious join between its two parts; that erosion is exactly why the spelling feels arbitrary today, with one 'r' that is in fact doubled and a single 'f'. The role travelled across the Atlantic with English settlers, where in the United States the sheriff became an elected county lawman, a meaning Hollywood westerns later fixed in the public imagination. Knowing that it hides 'shire' plus 'reeve' is the surest way to remember the unexpected double 'r' and single 'f'.

How the word is built

• shire (from Old English scir: county or district)
• reeve (from Old English gerefa: official or steward), contracted into one word