Word.ws English Dictionary

hird

hird noun: in Norwegian history, an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls.

Noun

hird (plural hirds)

  1. (historical) In Norwegian history, an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls.
  2. (broadly) The formal royal court household.

Proper noun capitalized: Hird

Hird (plural Hirds)

  1. A surname originating as an occupation for a herdsman.

Forms of hird

Noun
pluralhirds
Proper noun
pluralHirds

Origin of hird

Borrowed from Norwegian hird, from Old Norse hirð, a borrowing from Old English hīred, hēored (“family, household”), from Proto-West Germanic *hīwarād (“relationship; family”), equivalent to hewe + rede. Cognate with German Heirat (“wedding”).

Words formed from hird

Questions about hird

What does hird mean?
Hird means in Norwegian history, an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls.
What part of speech is hird?
Hird can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of hird?
The plural of hird is hirds.

Words near hird in the dictionary

  1. hircosity
  2. hircurra
  3. hircurrah
  4. hircurrahs
  5. hircurras
  6. hird
  7. hirdman
  8. hirdmen
  9. hirds
  10. hirdum-dirdum
  11. hirdy-girdies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hird (page history and authors); Hird (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hird.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hird. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.