herring
noun/ˈhɛɹɪŋ/
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.
A type of small, oily fish of the genus Clupea, often used as food.
- Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
Fish in the family Clupeidae.
Those fish and any other fish similar to those in genus Clupea, many of those in the order Clupeiformes.
- Derived terms
34 terms
Atlantic herring, Baltic herring, Bismarck herring, cucumber herring, dead as a herring, denticle herring, dressed herring, English herring, European herring gull, herring-bone, herringbone, herring cale, herringer, herring gull, herring-gutted, herringless, herringlike, herring pond, herring under a fur coat, herring worm, lake herring, longfin herring, matjes herring, oxeye herring, Pacific herring, pickle-herring, Picton herring, red herring, red herring prospectus, rock herring, round herring, thread herring, white herring, wolf herring