sheriff

See also: Sheriff

English

Alternative forms

• sherriff, shrieve (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English shirreve, from Old English sċīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire +‎ reeve. There is no etymological connection to Sharif (شَرِيف (šarīf)), an Arabic title of honour that has cognates in other languages including Hindi, Urdu, Portuguese, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛɹɪf/, /ˈʃɛɹəf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪf, -ɛɹəf

Noun

sheriff (plural sheriffs)

1. (British, except Scotland) (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties.
2. (Scotland) A judge in the sheriff court, the court of a county or sheriffdom.
3. (US) A government official, usually responsible for law enforcement in their county and for administration of the county jail, sometimes an officer of the court, usually elected.

Derived terms

• high sheriff
• sheriffalty
• sheriffdom
• Sheriff Hutton
• sheriffry
• sheriffship
• sheriffwick
• there is a new sheriff in town

Translations

all meanings

• Arabic: شَرِيف m (šarīf)
• Armenian: շերիֆ (hy) (šerif)
• Belarusian: шэры́ф m (šerýf)
• Bulgarian: шери́ф m (šeríf)
• Catalan: xèrif (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 郡治安官 (zh) (jùnzhì'ānguān)

• Czech: šerif (cs) m
• Dutch: sheriff (nl) m
• Esperanto: ŝerifo
• Finnish: šeriffi (fi), seriffi (fi), sheriffi (fi)
• French: shérif (fr) m
• Galician: shériff m
• Georgian: შერიფი (šeripi)
• German: Sheriff (de) m
• Greek: σερίφης (el) m (serífis)
• Hebrew: שֶׁרִיף m (šeríf)
• Hindi: शेरिफ़ m (śerif), शरीफ (hi) m (śarīph)
• Hungarian: seriff (hu), (US sense) megyei rendőrfőnök
• Icelandic: fógeti (is), skerfari m
• Ido: ushero (io)
• Irish: sirriam m
• Italian: sceriffo (it) m
• Japanese: 保安官 (ja) (ほあんかん, hoankan), シェリフ (sherifu), 郡治安官 (gunchiankan)
• Korean: 보안관 (ko) (boan'gwan), 형사 (ko) (hyeongsa)
• Malay: syerif
• Marathi: शेरिफ m (śeriph)
• Norwegian: sheriff m, lensmann (no) m
• Ojibwe: dakoniwewinini
• Persian: کلانتر (fa) (kalântar), شریف (fa) (šerif)
• Polish: szeryf (pl) m
• Portuguese: xerife (pt) m
• Romanian: șerif (ro) m
• Russian: шери́ф (ru) m (šeríf)
• Scottish Gaelic: siorram m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: шѐриф m

  Roman: šèrif (sh) m

• Spanish: sheriff (es) m, cherife m or f, alguacil (es) m
• Swedish: sheriff (sv) c
• Tagalog: serip
• Turkish: şerif (tr)
• Ukrainian: шери́ф m (šerýf)
• Urdu: شیرف m (śerif)
• Welsh: siryf m

Verb

sheriff (third-person singular simple present sheriffs, present participle sheriffing, simple past and past participle sheriffed)

1. (transitive) To carry out the duties of a sheriff. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

See also

• hatti-sherif (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• Shiffer

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English sheriff.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɾif/ [ˈʃe.ɾif]
• Rhymes: -eɾif
• Syllabification: she‧riff

Noun

sheriff m (plural sheriffs)

1. sheriff (all senses)

   Synonym: alguacil

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “sheriff”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10