Hering

See also: hering

German

Etymology

From Middle High German hærinc, herinc, from Old High German hārinc, herinc, from Proto-West Germanic *hāring, *haring, perhaps from a substrate language.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈheːʁɪŋ/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

Hering m (strong, genitive Heringes or Herings, plural Heringe)

1. herring
2. tent peg
3. (informal) thin person, usually male
   • 1978, “Dicke”, performed by Marius Müller-Westernhagen:

     Ich bin froh, dass ich kein Dicker bin,
     Denn Dicksein ist ’ne Quälerei.
     Ich bin froh, dass ich so’n dürrer Hering bin,
     Denn dünn bedeutet frei zu sein.

     I’m glad I’m not a fat person,
     Because being fat is torment.
     I’m glad I’m such a scrawny herring,
     For to be thin means to be free.

Declension

Declension of Hering [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Hering	die	Heringe
genitive	eines	des	Heringes, Herings	der	Heringe
dative	einem	dem	Hering, Heringe1	den	Heringen
accusative	einen	den	Hering	die	Heringe

¹Now rare, see notes.

Descendants

• → Estonian: heeringas
• → Hungarian: hering
• → Macedonian: харинга (haringa)
• → Romanian: hering
• → Serbo-Croatian: haringa

Further reading

• “Hering” in Duden online
• “Hering” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache