herring
/ˈhɛɹɪŋ/ noun, proper noun
Forms herrings
- noun A type of small, oily fish of the genus Clupea, often used as food.
- noun Fish in the family Clupeidae.
- noun Those fish and any other fish similar to those in genus Clupea, many of those in the order Clupeiformes.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A ghost town in Sac County, Iowa, United States.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia, United States.
Synonyms
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”), Bavarian Haring (“herring”). Late Latin haringus (whence French hareng, etc.) is borrowed from Germanic.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of various species of fishes of the genus Clupea, and allied genera, esp. the common round or English herring (C. harengus) of the North Atlantic. Herrings move in vast schools, coming in spring to the shores of Europe and America, where they are salted and smoked in great quantities. Herring gull (Zoöl.), a large gull which feeds in part upon herrings; esp., Larus argentatus in America, and L. cachinnans in England. See Gull.
Etymology [OE. hering, AS. hæring; akin to D. haring, G. häring, hering, OHG. haring, hering, and prob. to AS. here army, and so called because they commonly move in large numbers. Cf. Harry.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “herring”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details