Herds

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A group of domesticated animals, usually of the same species, which are managed collectively for agricultural purposes or herding practices
2. A social aggregation of animals that typically roam or feed together for mutual protection and resource sharing
3. A collection of animals, often raised for agricultural uses, that live and move together under human supervision or natural instincts

Etymology: "Herds" is the third-person singular present form of the verb "herd," so its story is really the story of "herd" itself. The noun and the word for the person who tends the animals were once close relatives. Old English "hierd" meant "herd" or "flock," but it also carried the sense of "keeping, care, custody," and it sat alongside "hirde," which meant a herdsman. Both come from a Proto-Germanic root, reconstructed as "hirdijaz," which tied the idea of a group of animals to the idea of someone looking after them. The word's deep ancestry lies in a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root "(s)kerdʰ-," meaning "file, row, herd." That same root reached other languages in forms that still mean much the same thing: German "Herde," Danish "hjord," and Swedish "hjord" all denote a flock or herd. Albanian "herdhe," which means "nest," and Serbo-Croatian "krdo," meaning herd, appear to belong to the same family, though the connection to "nest" is less obvious.

Synonyms: groups, flocks, packs, clusters, troops

Antonyms: individuals