Why are some locations in Pride and Prejudice called -shire?

Question

In my copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, there are several references to the location "-shire". Ex., Elizabeth says "please come to -shire". Is this an abbreviation for something?

Answer 1

Hello John J.

Here in dear old England we call our administrative divisions "shires" or "counties" rather than (I'm assuming you are from America) states. Most of the counties contain the suffix "shire" in them although we abbreviate them in common usage, so that Worcestershire becomes "Worcester", Hampshire (where I live) becomes "Hants" and "Shropshire" becomes, for some reason, "Salop" and so on.

The word itself comes from the Old English word "scir" which meant an office of administration, or the jurisdiction of such an office, or a county.

Some of the English county names are constructed from the principal town suffixed with "shire" (see Worcestershire I mentioned above) so, when Jane Austen wants to invent a fictitious county, all she does is take the fictitious town she is referring to and suffix it with "shire" and, hey presto, a new county name.

Answer 2

Shire is a common word in Middle English that corresponds to modern usage much as the word "county." For instance, in England you have: a) Staffordshire= Stafford is the namesake , Ie., probably an actual person the county was named for.
b) Benington= Bening is probably the name sake the town of Bening was named for ,ie., ton =town
It's a possessive suffix, so to speak.
This is a literary device the author used because he didn't want to implicate a specific location.

Answer 3

In some Countries Shires are used instead of County. Places like England, Australia. Sometimes it replaces a township.

Answer 4

Derbyshire is what she said