different between swarm vs shoal

English

Etymology

From Middle English swarm, from Old English swearm (“swarm, multitude”), from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz (“swarm, dizziness”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, hum”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Swoorm (“swarm”), Dutch zwerm, German Schwarm, Danish sværm, Swedish svärm, Icelandic svarmur (“tumult, swarm”), Latin susurrus (“whispering, humming”), Lithuanian surma (“a pipe”), Russian ???????? (svirél?, “a pipe, reed”).

The verb is from Middle English swarmen, swermen, from Old English swierman (“to swarm”), from Proto-Germanic *swarmijan? (“to swarm”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots swairm, swerm (“to swarm”), Dutch zwermen, German schwärmen, Danish sværme, Swedish svärma.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sw??m/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sw??m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Noun

swarm (plural swarms)

1. A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.
2. A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.

   a swarm of meteorites

   • those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]

3. (computing) A group of nodes sharing the same torrent in a BitTorrent network.

Derived terms

• aswarm

Translations

Verb

swarm (third-person singular simple present swarms, present participle swarming, simple past and past participle swarmed)

1. (intransitive) To move as a swarm.
2. (intransitive) To teem, or be overrun with insects, people, etc.

   • Every place swarming with soldiers.

3. (transitive) To fill a place as a swarm.
4. (transitive) To overwhelm as by an opposing army.
5. To climb by gripping with arms and legs alternately.
   • 1784, William Coxe, Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark

     At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 55

     She called out, and a boy came running along. He swarmed up a tree, and presently threw down a ripe nut. Ata pierced a hole in it, and the doctor took a long, refreshing draught.

6. To breed multitudes.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

Anagrams

• warms

Middle English

Alternative forms

• swrame, swarme

Etymology

From Old English swearm, from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swarm/, /sw?rm/

Noun

swarm (plural swarmes)

1. A swarm (large, moving group of bees)
2. (rare) A large group of people.

Derived terms

• swarmen

Descendants

• English: swarm
• Scots: swairm

References

• “swarm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-24.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???l/, /???l/
• Rhymes: -??l

Etymology 1

From Middle English schold, scholde, from Old English s?eald (“shallow”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skalidaz, past participle of *skaljan? (“to go dry, dry up, become shallow”), from *skalaz (“parched, shallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh?- (“to dry out”). Cognate with Low German Scholl (“shallow water”), German schal (“stale, flat, vapid”). Compare shallow.

Alternative forms

• sheld (dialectal)
• shaul, shawl, shauld, schald, shaud, shawd (Scotland)
• shole, shoald, shold

Adjective

shoal (comparative shoaler, superlative shoalest)

1. (now rare) Shallow.
   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.19:

     But that part of the coast being shoal and bare, / And rough with reefs which ran out many a mile, / His port lay on the other side o' the isle.

Noun

shoal (plural shoals)

1. A sandbank or sandbar creating a shallow.
   • The god himself with ready trident stands, / And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands, / Then heaves them off the shoals.

2. A shallow in a body of water.

   • The depth of your pond should be six feet; and on the sides some shoals for the fish to sun themselves in and to lay their spawn.

Synonyms

• (sandbank): sandbar, sandbank

Translations

Verb

shoal (third-person singular simple present shoals, present participle shoaling, simple past and past participle shoaled)

1. To arrive at a shallow (or less deep) area.
2. (transitive) To cause a shallowing; to come to a more shallow part of.
   • 1859', Matthew Fontaine Maury, Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current Charts

     Noting the rate at which she shoals her water - […]

3. To become shallow.

Etymology 2

1570, presumably from Middle English *schole (“school of fish”), from Old English s?eolu, s?olu (“troop or band of people, host, multitude, division of army, school of fish”), from Proto-Germanic *skul? (“crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to divide, split, separate”). Cognate with West Frisian skoal (“shoal”), Middle Low German sch?le (“multitude, troop”), Dutch school (“shoal of fishes”). Doublet of school.

Noun

shoal (plural shoals)

1. Any large number of persons or things.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Vicissitude of Things

     great shoals of people

2. (collective) A large number of fish (or other sea creatures) of the same species swimming together.
   • c. 1661, Edmund Waller, On St. James's Park

     Beneath, a shoal of silver fishes glides.

Synonyms

• (fish): school

Translations

Verb

shoal (third-person singular simple present shoals, present participle shoaling, simple past and past participle shoaled)

1. To collect in a shoal; to throng.

   The fish shoaled about the place.

Anagrams

• HALOs, LOHAS, Sohal, halos, shola, solah