One way to hold this word: a man standing in the middle of a small place, put there by someone bigger. The land is not his. The people are not his. He keeps the place in order, takes in what is owed, and reports upward. Everything the word does grows out of that middle position.
From Old English ge-refa, an official. The old word simply named the post, and the cognates in Dutch graaf and German Graf sit on the same line. In England the role and the word were largely replaced by bailiff.
來自古英語 ġerēfa，意思就是「官員」，跟荷蘭文 graaf、德文 Graf 同一條線。這個字本來只是「一個被派來管事的人」的名稱，所以它從一開始就沒有指定要管什麼，只指定了他的位置。英格蘭後來把這個職位和這個字大多換成了 bailiff。
Wiktionary entry supplied in packet, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:659618358
One branch
替上面的人看管一個地方的人
這一家就是核心本身：一個地方、一個被派來管它的人。差別只在時代和國家。
noun · C1
In early England, an official who looked after a town, a village, or a lord's land for him. Different reeves did different jobs, such as keeping order, collecting what was owed, and running the farm work.
（舊時英格蘭）地方官