Not in colloq. use. Forms: see SWINE and HERD sb.2; also 5–6 swynnard(e, 5–6 swynard, 6–7 swinheard, 7 swinherd, swiniard, (also 9 dial.) swin(e)yard; 5 swynshyrd. [late OE. swýnhyrde: see SWINE and HERD sb.2 Cf. MLG. swînherde, OHG. swînhirti (MHG. -hirte, G. schwein(e)hirt), ON. svínahirðir (Sw. svinherde, Da. svinehyrde).
The word has been refashioned in modern times on its etymological elements. For the variants swin(e)yard, etc., cf. swanyeard, etc., SWANHERD. See also SWINWARD.]
1. A man who tends swine, esp. for hire.
a. 1100. in Zeitschr. für deutsches Altertum, XXXIII. 239. Subulcus, swynhyrde.
1338. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), I. 9. A suynhird smote he to dede vnder a thorn busk.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 483/2. Swyyne herd (K. swynshyrd).
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, lxxii. Ye shall sitte downe and ete here with the swyne-herthe.
1451. Lincoln Diocese Documents, 51. I will my scheperd hafe vj. wedyr hogges; & my Swynnard iiij. Swynne.
1526. Tindale, Mark v. 14. The swyne heerdes fleed and tolde it.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 19. This man [sc. Justinus] in his youth was but a swin-heard.
1590. T. Watson, Eglogue Death Walsingham, Poems (Arb.), 157. When eurie swynard shall exceede his borne.
c. 1622. Rowley, etc., Birth of Merlin, III. iv. 5. A swinherds wife, keeping hogs by the Forestside.
1640. J. Dyke’s Sel. Serm., Ep. Ded. A iij b. The cooke, and the swineyard, the weaver, and kember.
1687. Bishop, Marrow of Astrol., I. 36. Herds-men, or swinyards.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 504. Mr. Corbet … had his head cut off by two Swiniards in the time of the Rebellion in Ireland, an. 1641.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XVII. 254. Where goes the swine-herd, with that ill-look’d guest?
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxv. I, Gurth, the son of Beowulph, the swineherd.
1846. Youatt, Pig, ii. 14. The swineherds [in Egypt] formed an isolated race, outcasts from society.
1872. Tennyson, Last Tourn., 626. When had Lancelot utter’d aught so gross Ev’n to the swineherd’s malkin in the mast?
† 2. ‘A term for a boar, he being the head or master of the herd’ (Nares). Obs.
1607. Christmas Prince (1816), 24. Then sett downe ye Swineyard, The foe to ye Vineyard…. Lett this Boares-head and mustard Stand for Pigg, Goose and Custard.
Hence Swineherding, the tending of swine; Swineherdship, the position of swineherd.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., IV. xxi. (1589), 88. An Vnder-Swineheard ship did serue, he sought not to be chiefe.
1872. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 113. Cattle-breeding and swine-herding.
1899. Q. Rev., April, 443 (tr. Heine). I have returned to God like the prodigal son after my long swineherdship among the Hegelians.
