Stirlingshire

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A former county in central Scotland that has largely been absorbed into the modern council areas of Stirling and Falkirk
2. An historic Scottish county lying in the central Lowlands, centred on the town of Stirling and its surrounding countryside
3. A traditional region of central Scotland that was administered as a county until local government reorganisation in 1975

Etymology: Stirlingshire is a compound of two parts: "Stirling," the name of the town on the River Forth in central Scotland, and "-shire," the English word for a county, from Old English "scir," meaning a division or administrative district. Put together, the name simply means "the county of Stirling," following the English pattern of naming shires after their chief towns, as with Yorkshire or Lancashire. The "-shire" element traces back to Old English, where "scir" referred to an official district or share of responsibility before it came to mean a county. Scotland adopted the English-style shire system, which is why the county's name follows the same model as its English counterparts despite its different location. Because the word is a straightforward combination of a place name and a county suffix, its history is essentially that of its two parts joined together. The town of Stirling gave the county its name, and the suffix does the work of marking it as a county.