herd

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[edit] English

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[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology 1

Old English heord, from Proto-Germanic *herdō, from Proto-Indo-European *kerdha. Cognate with German Herde, Swedish hjord.

[edit] Noun

herd (plural herds)

  1. A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper. [from 11th c.]
  2. Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company. [from 13th c.]
    • 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma, National Geographic (March 2007), 47,
      Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.
  3. A crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative: a rabble. [from 15th c.]
    But far more numerous was the herd of such / Who think too little and who talk too much. Dryden.
    You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question. Coleridge.
[edit] Translations
number of beasts assembled together
crowd of low people

[edit] Verb

herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

  1. (intransitive) To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
    Sheep herd on many hills.
  2. (intransitive) To associate; to ally one's self with, or place one's self among, a group or company.
    (Can we date this quote?) I’ll herd among his friends, and seem One of the number. Addison.
[edit] Translations
to unite or associate in a herd
to associate

[edit] Etymology 2

Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

[edit] Noun

herd (plural herds)

  1. (now rare) Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.
    • 2000, Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury 2002, p. 38:
      Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd.
[edit] Derived terms
terms derived from herd (person who tends a herd)
[edit] Related terms
terms related to herd (person who tends a herd)
[edit] Translations
herdsman
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[edit] Verb

herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

  1. (intransitive, Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
  2. (transitive) To form or put into a herd.
    I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.
[edit] Translations
to act as a herdsman
to form or put into a herd

[edit] See also

[edit] Old High German

[edit] Etymology

West Germanic *hertha, whence also Old English heorþ

[edit] Noun

herd m.

  1. hearth
Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=herd&oldid=15380283"
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