herd

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large group of animals of one kind, especially cattle or other livestock, that live or move together.

   A herd of cattle grazed quietly in the field.

2. 2
   verb

   To make people or animals move together as a group.

   The teachers herded the children into a spare classroom.

3. 3
   noun

   A large crowd of people, especially seen as acting the same way without thinking.

   I was never one to follow the herd.

From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord (“herd, flock; keeping, care, custody”), from Proto-West Germanic *herdu, from Proto-Germanic *herdō (“herd”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerdʰ- (“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Danish hjord, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe (“nest”) and Serbo-Croatian krdo.

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