priest-shire Hist. rare.
[repr. OE. préostsc{iacu}r, f. préost, priest n. + sc{iacu}r, shire.]
A district to which a priest ministered: a term equivalent to ‘parish’.
| c 1000 Eccles. Inst. c. 14 in Thorpe Anc. Laws II. 410 Ne spane nan mæsse-preost nanne mon of oðre cyrcean hyrnysse to his cyrcan, ne of oðre preost-scyre lære, þæt mon hys cyrcan ᵹesece. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. iv. 144 note, These districts allotted to priests were called priestshires. |