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He is befriended by a swineherd, Eumaeus (Claudio Santamaria), who apparently doesn’t recognize him.—Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Sep. 2024 One of the grottoes is known as Eumaeus’ Cave, in honor of the faithful swineherd who tended Odysseus’ pigs and is said (improbably, given the terrain) to have fattened them on acorns there.—Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023 The king of Barodia desires to become a swineherd.—Sarah Schutte, National Review, 11 Apr. 2021 The doctor then replaces the ruler’s missing arm with a swineherd’s.—Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022 So do the breezy complacency of Menelaus, the innocence of Nausicaa, the gruff decency of the swineherd Eumaeus.—Gregory Hays, New York Times, 5 Dec. 2017
Word History
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of swineherd was
before the 12th century
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