sheriff

• sherriff, shrieve (obsolete)

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛɹɪf/, /ˈʃɛɹəf/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪf, -ɛɹəf

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.

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:)

• hatti-sherif (etymologically unrelated)

• Shiffer

Unadapted borrowing from English sheriff.

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

sheriff m (plural sheriffs)

1. sheriff (all senses)

   Synonym: alguacil

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.

• “sheriff”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014