herd

Meanings

Noun

• 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: a rabble.
• Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.

Verb

• To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
• To unite or associate in a herd
• To manage, care for or guard a herd
• To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.
• To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
• To form or put into a herd.
• To move or drive a herd.

Origin

• From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord, from Proto-West Germanic *herdu, from Proto-Germanic *herdō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerdʰ-. Cognate with German Herde, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe and Serbo-Croatian krdo.
• From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.