herd

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans
  2. noun a group of wild mammals of one species that remain together: antelope or elephants or seals or whales or zebra
  3. noun a crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things

Etymology

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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