herd

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Contents

English [edit]

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Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord (“herd, flock; keeping, care, custody”), from Proto-Germanic *herdō (“herd”), from Proto-Indo-European *kerdʰ- (“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe, çerdhe (“bird nest, cradle, kindergarten”).

Noun [edit]

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.
Translations [edit]
a number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper
any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company
a crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative

Verb [edit]

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.
Translations [edit]
to unite or associate in a herd
to associate

Etymology 2 [edit]

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

Noun [edit]

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.
Derived terms [edit]
terms derived from herd (person who tends a herd)
Related terms [edit]
terms related to herd (person who tends a herd)
Translations [edit]
herdsman
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb [edit]

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.
Translations [edit]
to act as a herdsman
to form or put into a herd

See also [edit]

Old High German [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From West Germanic *hertha (Proto-Germanic *herþaz), whence also Old Saxon herth, Old Frisian herth, hirth, Old English heorþ. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“heat;fire”).

Noun [edit]

herd m

  1. hearth

Descendants [edit]

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