shire vs territory

shire

noun
  • A rural or outer suburban local government area of Australia. 

  • A shire horse. 

  • The general area in which a person lives or comes from, used in the context of travel within the United Kingdom. 

  • Physical area administered by a sheriff. 

  • Former administrative area of Britain; a county. 

verb
  • County Longford was shired in 1586 

  • To (re)constitute as one or more shires or counties. 

territory

noun
  • One of three of Australia's federated entities, located in the country's north and southeast, with fewer powers than a state and created by an act of Parliament rather than by the Constitution: Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory. 

  • An area of subject matter, knowledge, or experience. 

  • A geographic area under control of a single governing entity such as state or municipality; an area whose borders are determined by the scope of political power rather than solely by natural features such as rivers and ridges. 

  • A market segment or scope of professional practice over which an organization or type of practitioner has exclusive rights. 

  • The part of the playing field or board over which a player or team has control. 

  • A large extent or tract of land; for example a region, country or district. 

  • An area that an animal of a particular species consistently defends against its conspecifics. 

  • A location or logical space which someone owns or controls. 

  • A geographic area that a person or organization is responsible for in the course of work. 

  • One of three of Canada's federated entities, located in the country's Arctic, with fewer powers than a province and created by an act of Parliament rather than by the Constitution: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. 

How often have the words shire and territory occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )