Herring
nounA small silvery sea fish often eaten smoked, salted, or pickled.
How to spell herring
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce herring
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does herring mean?
- nounA small silvery sea fish often eaten smoked, salted, or pickled.
Herring in a sentence
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The market stall sold fresh herring on a bed of ice.
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She ordered pickled herring with rye bread for lunch.
Where does herring come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Herring comes from the Old English word 'hering', a native Germanic name for the common silver sea fish, with close relatives in Old High German 'haring' and Dutch 'haring'. The deeper origin is uncertain, but one long-standing suggestion links it to the Germanic root for 'army' or 'host' (compare Old English 'here'), supposedly because the fish travel in enormous shoals like a marching crowd; this is plausible but not proven, so it should be treated with caution. The spelling settled with a single 'r' followed by the doubled consonant pattern '-rring' that trips writers up. The fish has been a staple of northern European diets for many centuries, smoked and salted as kipper, bloater, and red herring. That last phrase, 'red herring', came from the strong-smelling cured fish and now means a misleading clue, which keeps the word alive far beyond the fishmonger.
How the word is built
- herring (single Old English root; not analysable into prefix and suffix)
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