goatherd
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of goatherd
before 1000; Middle English; Old English gāthyrde. See goat, herd 2
Explanation
A goatherd is someone who herds and cares for a group of goats. In India and other parts of South Asia, goatherds raise animals whose wool is used to make cashmere sweaters. Goatherd comes from the Old English gat-hyrde, or goat herder. Anyone who tends to a herd of goats can call themselves a goatherd, whether they're raising them for their fleecy coats or using their milk to make goat cheese. Herding goats involves moving them from one field or pasture to another, because they're constantly chewing vegetation. Some goatherds corral their goats in areas where invasive plants are a problem: goats are even used to eradicate poison ivy.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His companion, Nikolaus, looked blank, as I reeled off the names of the songs: Edelweiss, Climb Every Mountain and The Lonely Goatherd.
From BBC • Mar. 1, 2015
He began puppeteering for Bil Baird, who produced and performed the puppetry sequence for The Lonely Goatherd in the film version of The Sound of Music.
From BBC • Aug. 26, 2012
We have a distorted version of the Lonely Goatherd and we're cutting the strings.
From The Guardian • Jun. 8, 2010
And it's fun -- though a bit disturbing -- to realize how much space in one's brain has been devoted to remembering every single word of, say, "The Lonely Goatherd."
From Seattle Times • Apr. 13, 2010
They called him Goatherd, of course, because he was Gontish, but they did not go further than that.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
