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Usher vs Herd - What's the difference?

usher | herd |

As nouns the difference between usher and herd

is that usher is a person, in a church, cinema etc., who escorts people to their seats while herd is a number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.

As verbs the difference between usher and herd

is that usher is to guide people to their seats while herd is to unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.

usher

English

(wikipedia usher)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A person, in a church, cinema etc., who escorts people to their seats.
  • A male escort at a wedding.
  • A doorkeeper in a courtroom.
  • (dated) An underteacher, or assistant master, in a school.
  • Derived terms

    * usherette

    Verb

  • To guide people to their seats.
  • * 1836 , , Sketches by Boz , "The curate. The old lady. The half-pay captain."
  • Her entrance into church on Sunday is always the signal for a little bustle in the side aisle, occasioned by a general rise among the poor people, who bow and curtsey until the pew-opener has ushered the old lady into her accustomed seat, dropped a respectful curtsey, and shut the door;
  • To accompany or escort (someone).
  • * 1898 , , The Rise of the Dutch Republic , page 509
  • Margaret was astonished at the magnificence of the apartments into which she was ushered .
  • (figuratively) To precede; to act as a forerunner or herald.
  • * 1912 , Elizabeth Christine Cook, Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, 1704-1750 , page 31
  • Thus the Harvard poets and wits ushered The New England Courant out of existence.
  • (figuratively) to lead or guide somewhere
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 29 , author=Keith Jackson , title=SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 , work=Daily Record citation , page= , passage=McCoist unexpectedly ushered back a defender of his own with Kirk Broadfoot taking over from Steven Whittaker. There was, of course, another change, Kyle Bartley stepping in at centre-half to replace suspended Dorin Goian.}}

    Derived terms

    * usher in

    Anagrams

    * *

    herd

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) herde, heerde, heorde, from (etyl) hierd, .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper.
  • * 1768, ,
  • The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.
  • Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company.
  • * 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma , National Geographic (March 2007), 47,
  • Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd .
  • A crowd, a mass of people; now usually pejorative: a rabble.
  • * Dryden
  • But far more numerous was the herd of such / Who think too little and who talk too much.
  • * Coleridge
  • You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company.
  • Sheep herd on many hills.
  • To associate; to ally one's self with, or place one's self among, a group or company.
  • (rfdate) I’ll herd among his friends, and seem One of the number. Addison.

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) hirde, (hierde), from (etyl) . Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who keeps a group of domestic animals; a herdsman.
  • * 2000 , Alasdair Grey, The Book of Prefaces , Bloomsbury 2002, p. 38:
  • Any talent which gives a good new thing to others is a miracle, but commentators have thought it extra miraculous that England's first known poet was an illiterate herd .
    Derived terms
    * bearherd * cowherd * goatherd * gooseherd * hogherd * horseherd * neatherd * oxherd * swanherd * swineherd * vaxherd

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.
  • To form or put into a herd.
  • I heard the herd of cattle being herded home from a long way away.

    See also

    * * drove * gather * muster * round up * ride herd on English collective nouns ----