Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who tends swine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A herder or keeper of swine. Also swineward.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A keeper of swine.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who herds and tends swine, a keeper of swine (pigs).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a herder or swine

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A compound of swine +‎ herd; before 1100, from Middle English, from Late Old English swȳnhyrde ("swineherd"), from Old English swīn ("swine, pig") + Old English hierde ("herd, herder"), cognate with German Schweinehirt, Schweinehirte.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word swineherd.

Examples

  • Then she called the swineherd to her apartment and said: "Bring the beggar hither.

    Odysseus, the Hero of Ithaca Adapted from the Third Book of the Primary Schools of Athens, Greece 750? BC-650? BC Homer 1879

  • Telemachus was the first to notice him, and calling the swineherd, who was sitting near, he gave him a loaf of bread and a good handful of meat, and bade him carry it to the beggar.

    Stories from the Odyssey

  • And Telemachus called the swineherd to him, and took a whole loaf out of the fair basket, and of flesh so much as his hands could hold in their grasp, saying: 39

    Book XVII Homer 1909

  • ` ` Let Gurth do thine office, Oswald, '' said Wamba with his usual effrontery; ` ` the swineherd will be a fit usher to the Jew. ''

    Ivanhoe 1892

  • The scene shifts (l. 301) to the hut of the swineherd, which is the present destination of Telemachus.

    Homer's Odyssey A Commentary Denton Jaques Snider 1883

  • And Telemachus called the swineherd to him, and took a whole loaf out of the fair basket, and of flesh so much as his hands could hold in their grasp, saying:

    The Odyssey 750? BC-650? BC Homer 1878

  • "Let Gurth do thine office, Oswald," said Wamba with his usual effrontery; "the swineherd will be a fit usher to the Jew."

    Ivanhoe. A Romance 1819

  • "Let Gurth do thine office, Oswald," said Wamba with his usual effrontery; "the swineherd will be a fit usher to the Jew."

    Ivanhoe Walter Scott 1801

  • He goes off to a distant country and wastes his resources on riotous living and eventually has to work as a "swineherd" (clearly a low point as swine are unclean in Judaism.)

    Joan E. Dowlin: Allen Iverson: The Prodigal Son Returns to Philadelphia 2009

  • “Let Gurth do thine office, Oswald,” said Wamba with his usual effrontery; “the swineherd will be a fit usher to the

    Ivanhoe 2004

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I kinda like this word - it has an old world feeling about it.

    June 18, 2009

  • The swineherd is swain to the goosegirl.

    June 18, 2009

  • is the definition meant to be "a herder _of_ swine"?

    June 18, 2009

  • Alackaday! the goosegirl wails, for her swain was a swine, you see.

    June 18, 2009

  • And she mourns a hope that always fails and a love that never can be.

    (Qroqqa, the quatrain yearned to be completed!)

    June 18, 2009

  • -herd has so much potential. Goat-herd, swine-herd, people-herd...

    March 20, 2012