Herd
Old English heord, of Germanic origin; related to German Herde .
wiktionary
From Middle English herde, heerde, heorde, from Old English hierd, heord(“herd, flock; keeping, care, custody”), from Proto-West Germanic *herdu, from Proto-Germanic *herdō(“herd”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerdʰ-(“file, row, herd”). Cognate with German Herde, Swedish hjord. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian herdhe(“nest”) and Serbo-Croatian krdo.
From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.
etymonline
herd (n.1)
Old English heord "herd, flock, company of domestic animals," also, rarely, "a keeping, care, custody," from Proto-Germanic *herdo (source also of Old Norse hjorð, Old High German herta, German Herde, Gothic hairda "herd"), from PIE *kerdh- "a row, group, herd" (source also of Sanskrit śárdhah "herd, troop," Old Church Slavonic čreda "herd," Greek korthys "heap," Lithuanian kerdžius "shepherd"). Of any animals, wild or domestic, from c. 1200; of people, often in a disparaging sense, from c. 1400. Herd instinct in psychology is first recorded 1886.
herd (v.)
mid-13c., "to watch over or herd (livestock);" of animals, "gather in a herd, go in a herd, form a flock," late 14c. From herd (n.1). Transitive sense of "to form (animals, people, etc.) into a herd" is from 1590s. Related: Herded; herding.
herd (n.2)
"keeper of a flock of domestic animals," Old English hierde, from the source of herd (v.). Now obsolete except in compounds. Compare Old Saxon hirdi, Middle Dutch hirde, German Hirte, Old Norse hirðir.
