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shepherd

  (shĕp'ərd) pronunciation
n.
  1. One who herds, guards, and tends sheep.
  2. One who cares for and guides a group of people, as a minister or teacher.
  3. A German shepherd.
tr.v., -herd·ed, -herd·ing, -herds.

To herd, guard, tend, or guide as or in the manner of a shepherd. See synonyms at guide.

[Middle English shepherde, from Old English scēaphierde : scēap, sheep + hierde, herdsman.]


 
 
Thesaurus: shepherd

noun

    Something or someone that shows the way: conductor, director, escort, guide, lead, leader, pilot, usher. See show/hide.

verb

    To show the way to: conduct, direct, escort, guide, lead, pilot, route, show, steer, usher. See show/hide.

 
English Folklore: shepherds

The nature of their work kept shepherds somewhat apart from other farmworkers, and they had various traditions of their own: they continued wearing smocks when other labourers had long abandoned them, and they favoured regional differences in the design of crooks and sheep bells. To pass the time while guarding the flock, and to earn extra money, some snared wild birds, and others did elaborate woodcarving. It was customary for a shepherd to be buried with a tuft of wool in his hands, so that at Doomsday he could prove what his calling had been, and so be excused for often missing Sunday church. The fact that in Sussex fossil sea-urchins found on the Downs were called ‘shepherds' crowns' may imply they collected them for sale. They were often displayed on cottage mantlepieces or windowsills, sometimes being blackened with boot polish; the general belief was that they acted as thunder-stones, to keep thunder away and so prevent milk from turning sour, and some thought they also kept witches away. They were regarded as lucky, and whoever found one must spit on it and toss it over his left shoulder.

See also SHEEP-SHEARING, SHEPHERDS' SCORE.

 
Word Tutor: shepherd
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A person who takes care of sheep.

pronunciation And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale. — John Milton (1608-1674), English poet who wrote Paradise Lost.

 
Wikipedia: shepherd

A shepherd is one who takes care of sheep, usually in flocks in the fields.

History

Shepherding is one of the oldest professions, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat, and especially their wool. Over the next millennia sheep and shepherding spread throughout Eurasia.

Some sheep were integrated in the family farm along with other animals such as pigs and chickens. To maintain a large herd, however, the sheep must be able to move from pasture to pasture, this required the development of a profession separate from that of the farmer. The duty of shepherds was to keep their flock intact and protect it from wolves and other predators. The shepherd was also to supervise the migration of the flock and ensured they made it to market areas in time for shearing. In ancient times shepherds also often milked their sheep, and made cheese from this milk.

In many societies shepherds were an important part of the economy. Unlike farmers, shepherds were often wage earners, being paid to watch the sheep of others. Shepherds also lived apart from society, being largely nomadic. It was mainly a job of solitary males without children, and new shepherds thus needed to be recruited externally. Shepherds were most often the younger sons of farming peasants who did not inherit any land. Still in other societies, each family would have a family member to shepherd its flock, often a child, youth or an elderly who couldn't help much with a harder work; these shepherds were fully integrated in society.

Shepherds would normally work in groups either looking after one large flock, or each bringing their own and merging their responsibilities. They would live in small cabins, often shared with their sheep and would buy food from local communities. Less often shepherds lived in covered wagons that traveled with their flocks.

Shepherding developed only in certain areas. In the lowlands and river valleys, it was far more efficient to grow grains and cereals than to allow sheep to graze, thus the raising of sheep was confined to rugged and mountainous areas. In the pre-modern times shepherding was thus centred on regions such as the Land of Israel, Greece, the Pyrenees, and Scotland.

The shepherd's work in modern times

Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range Madison County, Montana, August 1942.
Enlarge
Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range Madison County, Montana, August 1942.

In modern times shepherding has changed dramatically. The abolition of common lands in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth century moved shepherding from independent nomads to employees of massive estates. European expansion spread sheep around the world, and shepherding became especially important in Australia and New Zealand where flocks of 4000, or more, are tended by one person. While originally shepherding in those countries was done on the wide and open frontiers, in modern times it has become dominated by agribusiness.

Wages are higher than was the case in the past. Keeping a shepherd in constant attendance can be costly. Also, the eradication of sheep predators in parts of the world have lessened the need for shepherds. In countries like Britain hardy breeds of sheep are frequently left alone without a shepherd for long periods of time. More productive breeds of sheep can be left in fields and moved periodically to fresh pasture when necessary. Hardier breeds of sheep can be left on hillsides. The sheep farmer will attend to the sheep when necessary at times like lambing or shearing.


Further information: Sheep husbandry

Shepherds in religion

The 5th-century Ravenna mosaic illustrates the concept of  The Good Shepherd.
Enlarge
The 5th-century Ravenna mosaic illustrates the concept of The Good Shepherd.

Metaphorically, the term is used for God, especially in the Judeo-Christian tradition (e.g. Psalm 23), and in Christianity especially Jesus, who is called Good Shepherd. The Ancient Israelites were a pastoral people and there were many shepherds among them. It may also be worth noting that many Biblical heroes were shepherds, among them the Old Testament prophet Amos, who was a shepherd in the rugged area around Tekoa, as well as King David, and Moses. In the New Testament angels announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds. Incidentally it is uncertain if shepherds would have been "in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8, ESV) during the winter (see Chronology of Jesus), although the traditional date for the birth of Jesus on December 25th is disputed.

The same metaphor is also applied to priests, with Roman Catholic and Church of England bishops having the shepherd's crook among their insignia (see also Lycidas). In both cases, the implication is that the faithful are the "flock" who have to be tended. This is in part inspired by Jesus's injunctions to Peter, "Feed my sheep," which is the source of the pastoral image in Lycidas.

The Great Shepherd is one of the thrusts of Biblical scripture. This illustration encompasses many ideas, including God's care for his people, His discipline to correct the wandering sheep, as well as the tendency of humans to put themselves into danger's way and their inability to guide and take care of themselves apart from the direct power and leading of God. [1]

Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, prided himself in being part of a rich tradition of prophets who found their means of livelihood as being shepherds.

Lord Krishna was also a Shepherd.

See also Pashupati, Dhangar.

Atheists, agnostics and other freethinkers regard this as showing that believers are expected to follow religious dogma like sheep rather than to question and reason like humans. [2] However, such an argument may not take into account other Biblical themes, such as God's invitation to man "Come, let us reason together..." (Isaiah 1:18)

Shepherd in popular culture

"The Shepherdess" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau; note that the bare feet are clean, despite her occupation.
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"The Shepherdess" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau; note that the bare feet are clean, despite her occupation.

The shepherd, with other such figures as the goatherd, is the inhabitant of idealized Arcadia, which is an idyllic and natural countryside. These works are, indeed, called pastoral, after the term for herding. The first surviving instances are the Idylls of Theocritus, and the Eclogues of Virgil, both of which inspired many imitators such as Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender. The shepherds of the pastoral are often heavily conventional and bear little relation to the actual work of shepherds.

Shepherds and shepherdesses have been frequently imortalised in art and sculpture. Among the best known is the neoclassical Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen's Shepherd Boy with Dog.[citation needed]

The shepherd, in such works, appears as a virtuous soul because of his living close to nature, uncorrupted by the temptations of the city. So Edmund Spenser writes in his Colin Clouts Come home againe of a shepherd who went to the city, saw its wickedness, and returned home wiser, and in The Faerie Queen makes the shepherds the only people to whom the Blatant Beast is unknown.

Many tales involving foundlings portray them being rescued by shepherds: Oedipus, Romulus and Remus, the title characters of Longus's Daphnis and Chloe, and The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. These characters are often of much higher social status than the characters who save and raise them, the shepherds themselves being secondary characters. Similarly, the heroes and heroines of fairy tales written by the précieuses often appeared as shepherds and shepherdesses in pastoral settings, but these figures were royal or noble, and their simple setting does not cloud their innate nobility.[1]

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth is the story of a flight from Germany to England undertaken by a young Vampire pilot one Christmas Eve.

Shepherd communities

The Tirthap community which is basically found in the north Maharashtra (Khandesh), i.e. Dhule, Jalgaon are also Dhangars they are said to originated from the Ahirs of Northern India.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lewis Seifert, "The Marvelous in Context: The Place of the Contes de Fées in Late Seventeenth Century France", Jack Zipes, ed., The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 920-1, ISBN 0-393-97636-X

 
Translations: Translations for: Shepherd

Dansk (Danish)
n. - hyrde, fårehyrde
v. tr. - hyrde, vogte, genne, føre, gelejde

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    kød- og kartoffelmospie

Nederlands (Dutch)
schaapherder

Français (French)
n. - berger
v. tr. - escorter, guider

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    hachis Parmentier

Deutsch (German)
n. - Schäfer, Schafhirt
v. - hüten

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    Auflauf aus Hackfleisch mit einer Schicht Kartoffelbrei darüber

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - βοσκός
v. - ποιμαίνω, (μτφ.) χειραγωγώ, ποδηγετώ

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    πίτα με κιμά και πουρέ

Italiano (Italian)
pastore

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    pasticcio di carne

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cão pastor (m)
v. - guardar, conduzir, guiar

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    torta de carne e batatas

Русский (Russian)
пастух, пастушок, персонаж пасторали, пастырь, пасти, проводить, присматривать, держать под наблюдением

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    "пастушья запеканка"

Español (Spanish)
n. - pastor
v. tr. - pastorear, guiar (la grey espiritual)

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    pastel de carne y patatas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - herde, fåraherde
v. - vakta, valla, fösa, driva som en boskapsskock

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
牧羊者, 指导者, 牧师, 牧羊犬, 看守, 指导, 领导

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    肉馅马铃薯饼

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 牧羊者, 指導者, 牧師, 牧羊犬
v. tr. - 看守, 指導, 領導

idioms:

  • shepherd's pie    肉餡馬鈴薯餅

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 양치기, 목사, 지도자
v. tr. - (양을) 지키다, (사람, 군중 등을) 안내하다, 감시하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 牧羊者, 指導者, 牧師
v. - 飼う, 導く

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألراعي, ألكاهن (فعل) يرعى ألقطيع أو ألرعيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רועה צאן‬
v. tr. - ‮רעה, הוביל‬


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
English Folklore. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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