flerd

English

WOTD – 19 July 2017

Etymology

Adriaen van de Velde, Cows and Sheep in a Wood (before 1672), from the collection of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich, London, UK

Blend of flock +‎ herd.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /flɜːd/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /flɝd/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d

Noun

flerd (plural flerds)

1. A mixed group of ruminants, such as sheep and cattle.
   • 1996, Small Farm Today, Clark, Mo.: Missouri Farm Pub., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 35:

     Dean M. Anderson, research animal scientist with USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Las Cruces, New Mexico, is bonding sheep to cattle into a cohesive unit termed a "flerd."

   • 2010, D[ean] M. Anderson, R. E. Estell, “Behavior – the Keystone in Optimizing Free-ranging Ungulate Production”, in Victor R. Squires, editor, Range and Animal Sciences and Resources Management (Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems), volume 1, [Oxford?]: Eolss Publishers, →ISBN, page 335:

     Flerds can help reduced coyote predation of small ruminants because cows will instinctively intimidate approaching canines. […] Even though dietary differences among flocks, herds and flerds remain similar on arid landscapes with abundant standing crop, animal distribution does differ.

   • 2015, Dina Rudick, Erik Jacobs, “Sheep & Goats”, in Barnyard Kids: A Family Guide for Raising Animals, Beverly, Mass.: Quarry Books, Quarto Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 81:

     Sheep and goats often co-graze with other animals, such as cows or horses. This grouping of species is sometimes called a flerd.

Anagrams

• DFLer

Middle English

FWOTD – 25 April 2017

Alternative forms

• flærd

Etymology

From Old English fleard (“nonsense; folly, vanity; deception, fraud; superstition”); cognate with Icelandic flærð (“deceit”), Old Danish flerdh, flær (“deceit, falsehood”), Swedish flärd (“frivolity, vanity; flamboyance”); see also Scots flird.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛːrd/, /flɛrd/

Noun

flērd (plural flērds)

1. deceit, falsehood
2. a person who deceives, trickster
   • a. 1250, “[A Bestiary, Arundel MS. 292, leaf 4a.] Natura wulpis [The Fox]”, in Richard Morris, editor, An Old English Miscellany Containing a Bestiary, Kentish Sermons, Proverbs of Alfred, Religious Poems of the Thirteenth Century, from Manuscripts in the British Museum, Bodleian Library, Jesus College Library, etc., London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by N. Trübner & Co., 60, Paternoster Row, published 1872, pages 14–15, lines 452–455:

     So waſ herodeſ fox and flerd, / ðo criſt kam in-to ðis middel-erd, / he ſeide he wulde leuen on, / and ðogte he wulde him fordon.

     So was Herod fox and deceiver, / for when Christ came into the world, / he said he would worship him, / and thought he would kill him.

Descendants

• English: flird, flirt
• Scots: flird

Further reading

• “flerd, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 16 April 2017.