herd

Etymology 1

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 *ḱerdʰ- (“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Danish hjord, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe (“nest”) and Serbo-Croatian krdo.

noun

1. A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
   a herd of cattle
   a herd of sheep
   a herd of goats
   The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea. 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
2. Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.
   Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd. 2007 March, J. Michael Fay, “Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma”, in National Geographic, section 47
3. (now usually derogatory) A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble.
   You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question. 8 June 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk
   There were herds of leather sofas and enough computers to ensure that no prospective matriculant or visiting parent could enter a room and not see at least one available keyboard, not even in the dining hall or field house. 2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

verb

1. (intransitive) To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
   Sheep herd on many hills.
   The women bunched up in little droves and let their tongues clack, and the men herded together and passed a jug around and, to tell the truth, let their tongues clack too. 1953, Janice Holt Giles, The Kentuckians
   Any predator that preys on animals that herd or school, has to be able to single out one individual to attack. 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, page 167
2. (transitive) To unite or associate in a herd
3. (transitive) To manage, care for or guard a herd
   He is employed to herd the goats.
4. (intransitive) To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.
5. (of both animals and people) To move, or be moved, in a group.
   On alighting at the station, we were all herded over the footbridge and through a side exit.

Etymology 2

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.

noun

1. (now rare) Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals.
   John Dodds, the herd who bode in the place, was standing at the door, and he looked to see who was on the road so late. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
   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. 2000, Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 38

verb

1. (intransitive, Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
2. (transitive) To form or put into a herd.
3. (transitive) To move or drive a herd.
   I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.