Hind

Hind, the female of the red-deer, usually taken as being three years old and over, the male being known as a “hart.” It is sometimes also applied to the female of other species of deer. The word appears in several Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch and Ger. Hinde, and has been connected with the Goth. hinÞan (hinthan), to seize, which may be connected ultimately with “hand” and “hunt.” “Hart,” from the O.E. heort, may be in origin connected with the root of Gr. κέρας, horn. “Hind” (O.E. hine, probably from the O.E. hinan, members of a family or household), meaning a servant, especially a labourer on a farm, is another word. In Scotland the “hind” is a farm servant, with a cottage on the farm, and duties and responsibilities that make him superior to the rest of the labourers. Similarly “hind” is used in certain parts of northern England as equivalent to “bailiff.”

* * *