Other forms: herrings
A herring is a small silvery sea fish caught in huge shoals. Pickled herring, a shoal of herring, smoked herring.
It fed northern Europe for centuries and its trade built cities — the Hanseatic League ran on salted herring. Stocks collapsed from overfishing in the twentieth century and have partly recovered under quota. A red herring is a false clue, from the smell of a smoked one.
1nounherringA small silvery sea fish caught in shoals.
“The fishing boats came back full of herring, which were salted and packed in barrels.”
herring is a fish.
Old English haering names the fish; the further origin is unknown.
Proto-Germanic
*hērą — hair
Proto-West Germanic
*hāring — herring
Old English
hǣring
Middle English
hering
English, today
herring
From Middle English hering, from Old English hǣring, from Proto-West Germanic hāring (“herring”), further etymology unknown. Possibly derived from Proto-Germanic hērą (“hair”) ing, due to the similarity of their fine bones to hair. Cognate with Scots hering, haring (“herring”), stq Hiering, Häiring (“herring”), West Frisian hjerring (“herring”), Dutch haring (“herring”), German Low German Hereng, Hering (“herring”), German Hering (“herring”), bar Haring (“herring”). Latin haringus (whence French hareng, etc.) is borrowed from Germanic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA