herring

Etymology

From Middle English hering, from Old English hǣring, from Proto-West Germanic *hāring (“herring”), further etymology unknown. Possibly derived from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”) + -ing, due to the similarity of their fine bones to hair. Cognate with Scots hering, haring (“herring”), Saterland Frisian Hiering, Häiring (“herring”), West Frisian hjerring (“herring”), Dutch haring (“herring”), German Low German Hereng, Hering (“herring”), German Hering (“herring”). Late Latin haringus (whence French hareng, etc.) is borrowed from Germanic.

noun

1. A type of small, oily fish of the genus Clupea, often used as food.
   Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. Fish in the family Clupeidae.
3. Fish similar to those in genus Clupea, many of those in the order Clupeiformes.