flerd
English
Etymology
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Van_de_Velde%2C_Adriaen_-_Cows_and_Sheep_in_a_Wood_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/220px-Van_de_Velde%2C_Adriaen_-_Cows_and_Sheep_in_a_Wood_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /flɜːd/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /flɝd/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d
Noun
flerd (plural flerds)
- A mixed group of ruminants, such as sheep and cattle.
- 2010, D[ean] M. Anderson, R. E. Estell, “Behavior – the Keystone in Optimizing Free-ranging Ungulate Production”, in Victor R. Squires, editor, Range and Animal Sciences and Resources Management (Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems), volume 1, [Oxford?]: Eolss Publishers, →ISBN, page 335:
- Flerds can help reduced coyote predation of small ruminants because cows will instinctively intimidate approaching canines. […] Even though dietary differences among flocks, herds and flerds remain similar on arid landscapes with abundant standing crop, animal distribution does differ.
- 2015, Dina Rudick, Erik Jacobs, “Sheep & Goats”, in Barnyard Kids: A Family Guide for Raising Animals, Beverly, Mass.: Quarry Books, Quarto Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 81:
- Sheep and goats often co-graze with other animals, such as cows or horses. This grouping of species is sometimes called a flerd.
Anagrams
Middle English
Etymology
From Old English fleard (“nonsense; folly, vanity; deception, fraud; superstition”); cognate with Icelandic flærð (“deceit”), Old Danish flerdh, flær (“deceit, falsehood”), Swedish flärd (“frivolity, vanity; flamboyance”); see also flird.
Pronunciation
Noun
flērd (plural flērds)
- deceit, falsehood
- a person who deceives, trickster
- a. 1250, “[A Bestiary, Arundel MS. 292, leaf 4a.] Natura wulpis [The Fox]”, in Richard Morris, editor, An Old English Miscellany Containing a Bestiary, Kentish Sermons, Proverbs of Alfred, Religious Poems of the Thirteenth Century, from Manuscripts in the British Museum, Bodleian Library, Jesus College Library, etc., London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by N. Trübner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row, published 1872, pages 14–15, lines 452–455:
- So waſ herodeſ fox and flerd, / ðo criſt kam in-to ðis middel-erd, / he ſeide he wulde leuen on, / and ðogte he wulde him fordon.
- So was Herod fox and deceiver, / for when Christ came into the world, / he said he would worship him, / and thought he would kill him.
Alternative forms
Descendants
Further reading
- “flerd, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 16 April 2017.
Categories:
- English blends
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)d
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Mammals
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English terms with quotations