Etymologically
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herring

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈhɛɹɪŋ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hering,[2][3] inherited from Old English hǣring, Anglian hēring,[4][5][6][7] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hāring,[8] a West Germanic word that Etymonline gives as *heringgaz.[5] It is cognate with Old Frisian hēreng, Old Saxon hering, Middle Low German herink, Middle Dutch herinc, Dutch haring, Old High German hāring, Middle High German hærinc and German Hering.[4][6][9] Its further origin is unknown.[5][8][6] One explanation refers to the fish's colour, relating it to Old English hār (“grey”), the source of hoar;[6][5][7][10] another to the great shoals it swims in, relating it to Old High German heri (“host, multitude”).[6][5] The OED reports that Kluge thought only the short-vowelled Old and Middle High German variant influenced by association with heri, and that Diez proposed an alteration of Latin hālec.[4] Wiktionary mentions a derivation from the Germanic word for hair, from the fish's fine bones.[8] French hareng and Italian aringa were taken from Germanic,[5][4] through Medieval Latin haringus.[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fish: in the Épinal Glossary,[4] where heringas glosses Latin sardinas;[11] Barnhart dates the Anglian form to about 700, in the early Mercian glossaries, and the West Saxon form to about 1000.[6] In Ælfric's Colloquy the fisherman, asked what he catches at sea, answers Hærincgas, herrings.[11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word already took qualifiers for how the fish was cured: red herring, smoked (in the OED from 1399), and white herring, salted but not smoked.[2][4][5] The red herring's use to throw hounds off a scent (1680s) led to its sense of a diversion from the real issue, from 1864;[5] Weekley thought that figurative use quite modern.[10] The proverb never a barrel the better herring, nothing to choose between them, is recorded from 1546, in Heywood.[4] From 1686, in Willughby and Ray, the name was extended to related fishes,[4] and the herring pond, the Atlantic, is recorded from the same year.[10] Herringbone was the bone of a herring from 1652 and an adjective from 1659.[6] The short vowel of modern herring is rare before the 16th century, and the OED notes that the vowel was still long in various dialects.[4] In north Yorkshire as dead as a herring meant quite dead,[12] and in 16th-century slang a jack-herring was a contemptible person.[13] An American verb herring, to manure land with herring, is recorded from 1879.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – hēring, in the Épinal Glossary.[4][6]
  • c. 1000 – West Saxon hǣring.[6]
  • 1399 – red herring, smoked herring.[4]
  • 1546 – never a barrel the better herring.[4]
  • 1575 – slang, a foolish or contemptible person.[13]
  • 1652 – herringbone.[6]
  • 1686 – applied to other fishes of the herring family.[4]
  • 1864 – red herring, a distraction from the real issue.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A silvery food fish of the North Atlantic, Clupea harengus, that swims in huge shoals: Smoked herring was served with rye bread.[14][15][4]
  2. Any of various related fishes of the same family, such as the shad or the Pacific herring.[15][4]

Word family

  • herringlike
  • herringbone
  • Bismarck herring
  • lake herring
  • herring gull
  • matjes herring
  • red herring
  • hoar

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins