Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Herring |
HerringNoun1. Valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled. 2. Commercially important food fish of northern waters of both Atlantic and Pacific. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "herring" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1595. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of seeing herring, indicates a tight squeeze to escape financial embarrassment, but you will have success later. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Herring Dead as a shotten herring. The shotten herring is one that has shot off or ejected its spawn. This fish dies the very moment it quits the water, from want of air. Indeed, all the herring tribe die very soon after they are taken from their native element. (See Battle.) "By gar de herring is no dead so as I vill kill him.' - Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, ii.2. Neither barrel the better herring. Much of a muchness; not a pin to choose between you; six of one and half a dozen of the other. The herrings of both barrels are so much alike that there is no choice whatever. In Spanish: "Qual mas qual menos, toda la lana es pelos." "Two feloes being like flagicious, and neither barell better herring, accused either other, the kyng Philippus ... sitting in judgment ypon them ... condemned both the one and the other with banishmente." - Erasmus: Apophthegmes. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | HERRING. The devil a barrel the better herring; all equally bad. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Tips from 1870 | Usage: Herring. The plural is herrings, but shad, trout, bass, pike, pickerel, grayling, have no plural form. "I caught three bass and seven fine pickerel this morning." Source: Slips of Speech. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
''Atlantic herring Clupea harengus
one of the most abundant species in the world''A fish is a poikilothermic water-dwelling vertebrate with gills. Fishes (over 27,315 species) are a paraphyletic group and are divided into the bony fishes (class Osteichthyes, 22,000 species); cartilaginous fishes (class Chondrichthyes, 800 species); and various groups of jawless fishes (75 species), including lampreys and hagfish. Fishes come in different sizes, from a 45 foot whale shark to a 8 mm long dwarfgoby. Other aquatic animals, such as jellyfish and cuttlefish, are not true fish.
Note on usage: fish vs. fishes
Fishes is the proper English plural form of fish that biologists use when speaking about two or more fish species, as in "There are over 25,000 fishes in the world" (meaning that there are over 25,000 fish species in the world). When speaking of many fish that all are part of the same species, then the word "fish" is used, as in "There are several million fish in the species Gadus morhua."
Fish ecology
Fishes can be found in most all large bodies of water in either salt and fresh water, at depths ranging from just below the surface to several thousand meters. However, hyper-saline lakes like the Great Salt Lake do not support fish. Some species of fish have been specially bred to be kept and displayed in an aquarium.
Fish are an important source of food. Other water-dwelling animals such as mollusks and crustaceans (commonly called shellfish) are often considered as fish when used as food. Catching fish for the purpose of food or sport is known as fishing. The annual yield from all fisheries worldwide is about 100 million tonnes.
Overfishing is a threat to many species of fish. On May 15, 2003, the journal Nature reported that all large oceanic fish species worldwide had been so systematically overcaught that fewer than 10% of 1950 levels remained. [1] Particularly imperilled were sharks, Atlantic cod, and Pacific sardines. The authors recommended immediate, drastic cutbacks in fish catches and reservation of ocean habitats worldwide.
Black seabass Centropristis striata (photo: Uwe Kils)See also: aquarium, freshwater aquarium fish species, marine aquarium fish species, deep sea fishes, list of fish families, list of fish common names, fish farming, fish anatomy, fish migration
External links
- Fish database (FishBase)
- Project for children - build a fish mobile with a behavior
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Fish."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Lake Huron herring, public domain drawing (click for large version and credits)A herring is a type of small oily fish found in the temperate, shallow waters of the North Atlantic.
Herring is one of various species of fishes of the genus Clupea especially the Atlantic herring (English herring) (Clupea harengus). Herrings move in vast schools (swarm), coming in spring to the shores of Europe and America, where they are caught, salted and smoked in great quantities.
Herrings can also be pickled and served in a sour cream sauce.
A kipper is a split and smoked herring, and a bloater is a whole smoked herring.
A typical Dutch delicacy is raw herring with raw shredded onions.
A rollmop is a cured herring fillet, rolled up and preserved in vinegar which is flavoured with onions and spices.
Figuratively, a red herring is a false lead in a mystery. In this context, red means smoked, and a smoked herring has such a strong smell that it can be used to create a false scent that causes hunting dogs to lose a trail.
Video of feeding herring, catching copepods - scanned with the ecoSCOPE - the fish is ca. 38 mm long
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Herring."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| HER | English | Atlantic herring | Food & Agriculture, International Organizations |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonym: HerringSynonym: Clupea harangus (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Barter | Speculate, give a sprat to catch a herring; buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market, buy low and sell high; corner the market; rig the market, stag the market. |
Death | Adjective: dead, lifeless; deceased, demised, departed, defunct, extinct; late, gone, no more; exanimate, inanimate; out of the world, taken off, released; departed this life. Verb: dead and gone; dead as a doornail, dead as a doorpost, dead as a mutton, dead as a herring, dead as nits; launched into eternity, gone to one's eternal reward, gone to meet one's maker, pushing up daisies, gathered to one's fathers, numbered with the dead. |
Hindrance | Trail of a red herring; opponent. |
Motive | Bribe, lure; decoy, decoy duck; bait, trail of a red herring; bribery and corruption; sop, sop for Cerberus. |
Narrowness Thinness | Emaciated, lean, meager, gaunt, macilent; lank, lanky; weedy, skinny; scrawny slinky; starved, starveling; herring gutted; worn to a shadow, lean as a rake; thin as a lath, thin as a whipping post, thin as a wafer; hatchet-faced; lantern-jawed. |
Saltiness | Adjective: salty, salt, saline, brackish, briny; salty as brine, salty as a herring, salty as Lot's wife. |
Unconformity | Fish out of water; neither one thing nor another, neither fish nor fowl, neither fish flesh nor fowl nor good red herring; one in a million, one in a way, one in a thousand; outcast, outlaw; off the beaten track; oasis. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Herring |
| English words defined with "herring": bloater, Blueback, brisling, Brit, britt ♦ Clupea sprattus, Clupeoid, cran, Cycloidei ♦ Diethylamine ♦ Garvie, Gizzard shad ♦ herring salad ♦ Isospondyli ♦ kipper, kippered herring ♦ Matie, Mattowacca, Merluce, Methyl amine, Mydaleine ♦ Oil sardine, order Isospondyli ♦ Pickle-herring, pilchard, Pollan, Powen ♦ Quoddies ♦ red herring ♦ Sardina pilchardus, sardine, Shotten, Sile, smoked herring, smorgasbord, Sperling, sprat, Syle ♦ Trimethylamine, Trubu ♦ Wall-eye, White herring, whitebait, whitefish. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "herring": Agmatine ♦ Billingsgate Pheasant ♦ FISH DRIER, fish flaker, flaker, flaker tender ♦ Glasgow Magistrate ♦ Hawk nor Buzzard, HERRING GUTTED ♦ King of the Sea ♦ Mourne herring ♦ NORFOLK CAPON ♦ Shotten Herring, SOLDIER ♦ USAModSim ♦ Yarmouth Bloater. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "herring": Syle. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Now you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. (North by Northwest; writing credit: Ernest Lehman) They named a brandy after Napoleon, they made a herring out of Bismarck, and the Fuhrer is going to end up as a piece of cheese (To Be or Not to Be; writing credit: Melchior Lengyel; Edwin Justus Mayer) The Great Herring War (The Golden Girls; writing credit: Philip Broadley; Gabriel Castro) | |
Lyrics | Herring boxes senza topses sandalae per Clementina, (Clementine; performing artist: Tom Lehrer) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Herring Hunt (1953) The Herring Murder Mystery (1944) Lee and Herring in This Morning with Richard Not Judy (1998) Daddy Loves to Cook Herring (1996) Red Herring (1991) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The herring plant at Big Port Walter. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Herring reduction plant at Big Port Walter. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Purse seining for herring on the Maine coast. Credit: Fisheries. |  | Dory used as purse seine boat fishing for herring on the Maine coast. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | The gillnet catch being brought in. The species being fished for included, blueback herring, Alosa aestivalis; silver perch, Bairdiella chrysoura; atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannosaurus; weakfish, Cynoscion regalis; Atlantic croaker, Micropogonus undulatus; white perch, Morone americanus; striped bass or rockfish, Morone saxatilis and; bluefish, Ponatomus saltatrix. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Former Seaboard Lumber site, was renamed Herring House following restoration. This is the site design layout. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Diver prepares herring collection nets next to submersible. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP). |  | Schematic of the HELGOLAND habitat operations to study herring off New England. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP). |
 | Offshore red algae communities serve as egg beds for New England herring. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP). |  | Herring Gulls. Credit: Bob Hines. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Herring's fence" by Uschi Hering Commentary: "A very old method to catch herrings, is to let them swim into herring fences, when they swim from the open sea into the fjord." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
John Heywood | Neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Japan | Exports of U.S. species which notably increased to Japan from 1999 to 2000 are chilled skipjack ($190,000, up 100 times), frozen sardine ($8.0 million, up 2.7 times), frozen cod roe ($302 million, up 73 percent), other frozen fish roe ($12.5 million, up 69 percent), frozen herring ($955,000, up 78 percent), salted herring roe ($7.3 million, up 45 percent), frozen king crab ($59.6 million, up 38 percent), live spiny lobster ($413,000, up 4.72 times), live king crab ($241,000, up 2.52 times), live abalone ($2.5 million, up 2.38 times), other prepared fish ($993,000, up 5.19 times), ikura salmon eggs ($116 million, up 80 percent), caviar and caviar substitute ($1.6 million, up 217 times), and worked cultured pearls ($700,000, up 4.64 times). (references) |
Indigenous People | Canada | In September nonaboriginal commercial herring fishermen protesting the closing of their own fisheries took their boats into an area where Burnt Church fishermen were engaged in a food fishery. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Herring" is generally used as a noun (common) -- approximately 97.78% of the time. "Herring" is used about 361 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (common) | 97.78% | 353 | 15,179 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.22% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Total | 100.00% | 361 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "herring" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Herring | Last name | 17,000 | 690 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "herring": Atlantic herring ♦ baltic herring ♦ bloat herring ♦ Branch herring ♦ draw a red herring across the path ♦ Egypt herring ♦ fall herring ♦ fat herring ♦ fermented baltic herring ♦ garvie herring ♦ herring barrel ♦ herring gull ♦ herring hag ♦ herring hake ♦ herring hog ♦ herring pond ♦ herring rissole ♦ herring roe ♦ herring salad ♦ iceland herring ♦ king of the herring ♦ kippered herring ♦ lake herring ♦ Mourne herring ♦ Pacific herring ♦ pickled herring ♦ Red Herring ♦ river herring ♦ salt herring ♦ salty as a herring ♦ shad herring ♦ shoal of herring ♦ shotten herring ♦ small herring ♦ smoked baltic herring ♦ smoked herring ♦ spent herring ♦ tailor herring ♦ Thread herring ♦ trail of a red herring ♦ white herring. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "herring": herring-boat, herring-boats, herring-bone, herring-bone-brick, herring-boning, herring-boxes, herring-curing, herring-fishing, herring-gull. | |
Ending with "herring": red-herring. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "herring"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | harengë (red herring), cëragë. (various references) | |
Arabic | سمك مملح (kipper), رنكة سمك. (various references) | |
Bavarian | haring. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | селда, херинга. (various references) | |
Chinese | 鲱鱼 (Herrings), 青魚 . (various references) | |
Czech | sleï, slaneèek (kipper, pickled herring). (various references) | |
Danish | sild (Atlantic herring, digby, mattie, sea herring, sild, yawling). (various references) | |
Dutch | haring (Atlantic herring, digby, mattie, peg, sea herring, sild, yawling), zeebanket. (various references) | |
Esperanto | haringo. (various references) | |
Faeroese | sild. (various references) | |
Farsi | شاه ماهی(ج.ش.). (various references) | |
Finnish | silli (Atlantic herring, digby, mattie, sea herring, sild, yawling). (various references) | |
French | hareng. (various references) | |
Frisian | hjerring. (various references) | |
German | hering (tent peg). (various references) | |
Greek | ρέγγα (Atlantic herring, digby, mattie, sea herring, sild, yawling). (various references) | |
Hebrew | דג מלוח. (various references) | |
Hungarian | hering. (various references) | |
Icelandic | síld. (various references) | |
Indonesian | biang-biang (saltwater herring). (various references) | |
Irish | scadÚn. (various references) | |
Italian | aringa (peg). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鰊 , 鯑 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | にしん (binary, double-dealing, duplicity, postscript, PS, treachery), かずのこ (herring roe). (various references) | |
Korean | 청어 (Herrings). (various references) | |
Manx | skeddan, ree ny marrey, guiy Manninagh. (various references) | |
Norwegian | sild. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | erringhay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | arenque (kipper, sea-rover). (various references) | |
Romanian | hering (soldier). (various references) | |
Russian | сельдь. (various references) | |
Scottish | sgadan (a herring, herrings). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | haringa. (various references) | |
Spanish | arenque (Atlantic herring, digby, mattie, sea herring, sild, yawling). (various references) | |
Sranan | eren, elen. (various references) | |
Swedish | sill (pickled herring). (various references) | |
Turkish | ringa, rínga baliği. (various references) | |
Turkmen | takgaz. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | оселедець. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | quần áo may bằng vải chéo chữ chi (herring-bone), ngói (herring-bone), kiểu khâu chữ chi (herring-bone). (various references) | |
Welsh | ysgadenyn, pennog. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Clupea harengus, Clupea harengus Linnaeus, Sardinops neopilchardus, Sardinops neopilchardus (Steindachner). (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "herring": herringbone, herringboned, herringbones, herringboning, herrings. (additional references) | |
| |
"Herring" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cherring, Derring, Ferringhi, Ghering, harrang, harreng, heerbrugg, Heering, heiring, Hergig, hering, Herning, heroing, Herryng, Herunga, Herwig, Herziana, hirring, hring, Huerin, lerring, serring, Sherring, wherring. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "herring" (pronounced he"ring) |
| 5 | h e" r i ng | haring. |
| 4 | -e" r i ng | airing, baring, bearing, blaring, caring, chairing, comparing, daring, declaring, despairing, flaring, glaring, impairing, overbearing, pairing, paring, preparing, repairing, scaring, sharing, snaring, sparing, squaring, staring, swearing, tearing, uncaring, unsparing, Waring, wearing. |
| 3 | -r i ng | appearing, acquiring, adhering, admiring, adoring, alluring, aspiring, assuring, barring, bioengineering, boring, charring, cheering, childbearing, clearing, conspiring, curing, deploring, disappearing, domineering, during, earring, electioneering, endearing, enduring, engineering, ensuring, expiring, exploring, fearing, firing, flooring, gearing, Goring, hearing, hiring, ignoring, imploring, inspiring, insuring, interfering, jarring, jeering, luring, marring, maturing, ministering, mooring, nearing, obscuring, outpouring, overhearing, overpowering, peering, perspiring, pioneering, poring, pouring, premiering, procuring, profiteering, quiring, racketeering, rearing, reassuring, reengineering, rehearing, rehiring, restoring, retiring, roaring, scarring, scoring, searing, securing, shearing, shoring, smearing, sneering, snoring, soaring, sparring, Spearing, starring, steering, stevedoring, storing, tarring, tiring, touring, underscoring, uninspiring, veering, volunteering, warring, wiring. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-g-h-i-n-r-r" | |
-1 letter: erring, hinger, nigher, ringer. | |
-2 letters: hinge, hirer, neigh, reign, renig, rerig. | |
-3 letters: gien, girn, grin, heir, hern, hire, nigh, rein, ring. | |
-4 letters: eng, erg, ern, err, gen, ghi, gie, gin, hen, her, hie, hin, ire, reg, rei, rig, rin. | |
-5 letters: eh, en, er, he, hi, in, ne, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-g-h-i-n-r-r" | |
+1 letter: herrings, herrying, hungrier, rehiring. | |
+2 letters: harbinger, prehiring, rehearing, wherrying. | |
+3 letters: brightener, brothering, charminger, chartering, chirurgeon, furthering, harbingers, murthering, prehearing, recharging, recharting, refreshing, rehearings, rehearsing, rephrasing, wharfinger. | |
+4 letters: brighteners, chirurgeons, handwringer, harbingered, heartstring, herringbone, intergrowth, menorrhagia, overarching, overhearing, overnighter, prehearings, rebranching, redshirting, regathering, rehammering, rehardening, rehydrating, renographic, reproaching, researching, rethreading, retrenching, wharfingers. | |
+5 letters: charactering, forereaching, forgathering, governorship, hairdressing, handwringers, harbingering, heartburning, heartrending, heartstrings, heartwarming, hemorrhaging, herringboned, herringbones, iconographer, interborough, interchanger, intergrowths, interwrought, menorrhagias, overcharging, overnighters, overreaching, overthrowing, preshrinking, rechartering, reenthroning, refreshening, refreshingly, refurbishing, refurnishing, renographies, reprehending, repurchasing, straightener. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Names: Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Abbreviations 18. Acronyms 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
