different between herd vs ferd

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /h??d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /h?d/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d
• Homophone: heard

Etymology 1

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

Noun

herd (plural herds)

1. A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper. [from 11th c.]
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,

     The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.

2. Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company. [from 13th c.]
   • 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma, National Geographic (March 2007), 47,

     Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.

3. (now usually derogatory) A crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative: a rabble. [from 15th c.]
   • 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk, 8 June 1833

     You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.

Derived terms

• herd immunity
• herd instinct

Translations

Verb

herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

1. (intransitive) To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.

   Sheep herd on many hills.
2. (transitive) To unite or associate in a herd
3. (transitive) To manage, care for or guard a herd

4. (intransitive) To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company.

   • I’ll herd among his friends, and seem
     One of the number.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hird?, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

Noun

herd (plural herds)

1. (now rare) Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.
   • 2000, Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury 2002, page 38:

     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.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

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.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns
• drove
• gather
• muster
• round up
• ride herd on

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

herd

1. imperative of herde

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *herþ.

Noun

herd m

1. hearth

Descendants

• Middle High German: hert
  • German: Herd
  • Luxembourgish: Häerd

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??(?)d/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d

Etymology 1

From Middle English ferde, feord, furd, from Old English fierd (“army”), from Proto-West Germanic *fardi, from Proto-Germanic *fardiz (“journey, expedition”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to put across, ferry”). Cognate with Old Frisian ferd, fart (“an expedition, journey”), Old High German fart (“journey”) (German Fahrt), Danish færd (“voyage, travel”). Doublet of fyrd. More at fare.

Noun

ferd (plural ferds)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) Impetus, speed.
2. (obsolete, Scotland, Northern England) A journey.

3. (obsolete) An army, a host.
4. (obsolete) A military expedition.
   • c. 1050, The Paris Psalter

     Þeah þu mid us ne fare on fyrd...

     (Though thou with us not fare on a ferd...)

5. (obsolete) A company, band, or group.
   • c. 1400, The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy

     And foure scoure fyne shippes to the flete broght... with fyfty, in a furthe, all of fuerse vesell.

     (And four score fine ships to the fleet brought... with fifty in a ferd, all of fierce vessel.)

   • 1986, Jack Arthur Walter Bennett, Douglas Gray, Middle English literature - Volume 1 - Page 89:

     For him a lord (British or Roman) is essentially a leader of a 'ferd' (OE fyrd); […]

Usage notes

• This word in its Anglo-Saxon form, fyrd, is used historically in a technical sense.

Derived terms

• landfyrd
• shipfyrd
• ferdfare
• ferdwite

Related terms

• here

References

• “ferd”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–, OCLC 57069714
• “ferd”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–, OCLC 57069714

Etymology 2

From Middle English feren (“to fear”). More at fear.

Noun

ferd (usually uncountable, plural ferds)

1. (obsolete) Fear.

Anagrams

• Fred, derf

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse ferð.

Noun

ferd f or m (definite singular ferda or ferden, indefinite plural ferder, definite plural ferdene)

1. journey, voyage, expedition
2. være i verd med (also written as iferd): to be on the point of, to be busy with

Derived terms

• folkeferd n
• gjenferd n
• pilegrimsferd
• triumfferd

References

• “ferd” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “ferd” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse ferð.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fæ?r/, /f?rd/

Noun

ferd f (definite singular ferda, indefinite plural ferder, definite plural ferdene)

1. journey, travel

2. group of people
3. vere i verd med: to be on the point of, to be busy with

Derived terms

• ferdsel
• gjenferd n
• pilegrimsferd
• triumfferd

Verb

ferd

1. imperative of ferda and ferde

References

• “ferd” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.