flockとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English flok, from 古期英語 flocc (“flock, company, troop”), from Proto-West Germanic *flokk, from Proto-Germanic *flukkaz (“crowd, troop”). Cognate with Middle Low German vlocke (“crowd, flock”), Danish flok (“flock”), Swedish flock (“flock”), Norwegian flokk (“flock”), Faroese flokkur (“flock”), Icelandic flokkur (“flock, group”). Related also to Norman fliotchet (“flock, crowd”), from Old Norse. Perhaps related to 古期英語 folc (“crowd, troop, band”). More at folk.

名詞

flock (2) of sheep

flock (複数形 flocks)

1. A number of birds together in a group, such as those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
2. A large number of animals associated together in a group; commonly used of sheep, but (dated) also used for goats, farmed animals, and a wide variety of animals.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 170:

     He told his father, and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill.

3. Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.herd/flock
   • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], OCLC 879237670, page 83:

   • 1995, Green Key Books, God's Word to the Nations (John 10:16)‎^[1]:

     I also have other sheep that are not from this pen. I must lead them. They, too, will respond to my voice. So they will be one flock with one shepherd.

4. A large number of people.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 2 Maccabees 14:14:

     The heathen […] came to Nicanor by flocks.

   Synonym: congregation

5. (Christianity) A religious congregation.

   Synonym: congregation

同意語

(large number of people):

• bunch, gaggle, horde, host, legion, litter, nest, rabble, swarm, throng, wake

動詞

flock (三人称単数 現在形 flocks, 現在分詞 flocking, 過去形および過去分詞形 flocked)

1. (intransitive) To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.

   People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.

   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:

     What place the gods for our repose assigned.
     Friends daily flock; and scarce the kindly spring
     Began to clothe the ground

   • 2021 October 20, Mark Rand, “S&C: a line fit for tourists... and everyone?”, in RAIL, number 942, page 43:

     Given the poor state of the line's trains and schedules, it is remarkable that people flock to use or experience it in embarrassingly large numbers.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
   • 1609, Taylor

     Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.

3. To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.

語源 2

From Middle English flok (“tuft of wool”), from Old French floc (“tuft of wool”), from Late Latin floccus (“tuft of wool”), probably from Frankish *flokko (“down, wool, flock”), from Proto-Germanic *flukkōn-, *flukkan-, *fluksōn- (“down, flock”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“hair, fibres, tuft”). Cognate with Old High German flocko (“down”), Middle Dutch vlocke (“flock”), Norwegian dialectal flugsa (“snowflake”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian flokë (“hair”).

名詞

flock (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 flocks)

1. Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding.
2. A lock of wool or hair.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point.

3. Very fine sifted woollen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, formerly used as a coating for wallpaper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fibre used for a similar purpose.
   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0091:

     There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

動詞

flock (三人称単数 現在形 flocks, 現在分詞 flocking, 過去形および過去分詞形 flocked)

1. (transitive) To coat a surface with dense fibers or particles; especially, to create a dense arrangement of fibers with a desired nap.

   the sampling and elution advantages of flocked swabs versus spun swabs

2. To cover a Christmas tree with artificial snow.

派生語

• flocked

参考

• Appendix:English collective nouns