horde

See also: Horde, hörde, and hørde

English

WOTD – 6 August 2007

Etymology

Recorded in English since 1555. From Middle French horde, from German Horde, from Polish horda, from Russian орда́ (ordá, “horde", 'clan, troop'”), probably from Kipchak Turkic (compare Tatar урда (urda, “horde”)), ultimately from Proto-Turkic *ordu (“place of staying of the army, ruler etc.”). Cognates include Turkish ordu (“camp, army”), Mongolian орд (ord, “court, castle, royal compound, camp, horde”) and Kalmyk орда (orda). Doublet of orda and Urdu.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hôd, IPA^(key): /hɔːd/
• (General American) enPR: hôrd, IPA^(key): /hɔɹd/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) enPR: hôd, IPA^(key): /hoːd/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: hōrd, IPA^(key): /ho(ː)ɹd/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /hoəd/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d
• Homophones: hoard, whored

Noun

horde (plural hordes)

1. A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people (originally Tatars) migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude.
2. A large number of people or things.

   We were beset by a horde of street vendors who thought we were tourists and would buy their cheap souvenirs.

   • 1907, Jack London, Before Adam, Chapter IV:

     It is true, the more progressive members of our horde lived in the caves above the river.

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 197:

     And so Tarzan of the Apes dropped lightly to the turf into the midst of the fierce and hideous horde—he had completed the cycle of evolution, and had returned to be once again a brute among brutes.

Derived terms

• Golden Horde
• hordal
• hordelike
• horde mode
• hordesman
• primal horde
• yellow horde

Translations

wandering troop or gang

Arabic: حَشْد m (ḥašd) Azerbaijani: ordu (az), qoşun (az) Belarusian: арда́ f (ardá) Bulgarian: о́рда (bg) f (órda) Catalan: horda f Chinese: Mandarin: 汗國 / 汗国 (zh) (hánguó) (referring to Mongolian Golden Horde), 斡耳朵 (zh) (wò'ěrduǒ) (referring to other Central Asian hordes) Czech: horda f Danish: horde (da) c Dutch: horde (nl) f Esperanto: hordo Finnish: orda French: horde (fr) f German: Horde (de) f Greek: ορδή (el) f (ordí) Indonesian: gerombolan (id) Irish: slua m Italian: orda (it) f Japanese: オルド (orudo) Kalmyk: орда (orda) Kazakh: орда (orda) Korean: 오르도 (oreudo) Kyrgyz: ордо (ordo) Macedonian: орда f (orda) Mongolian: Cyrillic: орд (mn) (ord) Mongolian: ᠣᠷᠳ᠋ᠤ (ordu) Nogai: орда (orda) Norwegian: Bokmål: horde (no) m Nynorsk: horde m Polish: horda (pl) f Portuguese: horda (pt) f Romanian: hoardă (ro) f Russian: орда́ (ru) f (ordá) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: хо̑рда f Roman: hȏrda (sh) f Spanish: horda (es) f Swedish: hord (sv) c Tatar: урда (tt) (urda) Turkish: ordu (tr) Turkmen: oorda Ukrainian: орда́ (uk) f (ordá) Uzbek: oʻrda (uz) Volapük: nomadatrup Yakut: ордуу (orduu)

a large number of people

Bulgarian: пълчи́ще (bg) n (pǎlčíšte) Chinese: Mandarin: 群眾 / 群众 (zh) (qúnzhòng), 大眾 / 大众 (zh) (dàzhòng), 移動 / 移动 (zh) (yídòng), 部落 (zh) (bùluò) Czech: horda f Danish: horde (da) c Dutch: horde (nl) f Esperanto: hordo Finnish: lauma (fi), ihmislauma French: horde (fr) f German: Horde (de) f Greek: ορδή (el) f (ordí) Hungarian: sereg (hu), horda (hu) Irish: slua m Italian: orda (it) f Macedonian: орда f (orda), толпа f (tolpa) Maori: manomano, tini, tinimano Norwegian: Bokmål: horde (no) m Portuguese: multidão (pt) f Russian: орда́ (ru) f (ordá), по́лчище (ru) n (pólčišče) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: хо̑рда f, ру̏ља f Roman: hȏrda (sh) f, rȕlja (sh) f Ukrainian: орда́ (uk) f (ordá)

Verb

horde (third-person singular simple present hordes, present participle hording or hordeing, simple past and past participle horded)

1. to travel en masse, to flock
   • 1824, T. E., Oriental Wanderings, or the Fortunes of Felix. A romance, page 69:

     "What wouldst thou insinuate?" replied Elmuton, sarcastically; “has he not been watched, and secretly discovered hordeing with Christians?

Usage notes

• Sometimes confused with hoard.

Anagrams

• Herod, Rhode, Rohde

Danish

Etymology

From German Horde.

Noun

horde c (singular definite horden, plural indefinite horder)

1. horde

Inflection

Declension of horde

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	horde	horden	horder	horderne
genitive	hordes	hordens	horders	hordernes

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɦɔrdə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hor‧de
• Rhymes: -ɔrdə

Etymology 1

Borrowed from German Horde; attested from the early 17th century.

Noun

horde f (plural horden or hordes, diminutive hordetje n)

1. a horde
2. a troop of boy scouts, comprising no more than 24 cubs

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch horde, hurde, from Old Dutch *hurd, from Proto-West Germanic *hurdi, from Proto-Germanic *hurdiz; cognate with German Hürde, and closely related to English hurdle (which is a diminutive of the same root). The sense "hurdle" is a semantic loan from English hurdle.

Noun

horde f (plural horden, diminutive hordetje n)

1. (sports) hurdle (obstacle used in races)
2. a gross sieve
3. any movable wattle screen or braided wooden lattice used for various purposes (as a wall, hurdle, shield, sieve or even raft)

Alternative forms

• horre

Derived terms

• dijkhorde
• hor
• hordeloop
• hordepaal
• horren
• kettinghor

References

• M. J. Koenen & J. Endepols, Verklarend Handwoordenboek der Nederlandse Taal (tevens Vreemde-woordentolk), Groningen, Wolters-Noordhoff, 1969 (26th edition) [Dutch dictionary in Dutch]

French

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ɔʁd/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

horde f (plural hordes)

1. a horde

Further reading

• “horde”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Fula

Alternative forms

• (Maasina) hoorde

Noun

horde nde (plural kore ɗe)

1. (Pulaar, Adamawa) calabash

References

• M. Niang, Pulaar-English English-Pulaar Standard Dictionary, New York: Hippocrene Books, 1997.
• Tourneux, Henry; Daïrou, Yaya (1998), Dictionnaire peul de l'agriculture et de la nature (Diamaré, Cameroun), suivi d'un index français-fulfulde‎ (in French), Paris: Karthala, →ISBN, retrieved 16 March 2024

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

horde

1. alternative form of hord

Etymology 2

Verb

horde

1. alternative form of horden

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From German Horde.

Noun

horde m (definite singular horden, indefinite plural horder, definite plural hordene)

1. a horde

References

• “horde” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxor.de/, [ˈhorˠ.de]

Noun

horde

1. dative singular of hord

Upper Sorbian

Adjective

horde

1. inflection of hordy:
   1. neuter nominative/accusative singular
   2. nominative/accusative plural