associate vs herd

associate

verb
  • To join as a partner, ally, or friend. 

  • To connect or join together; combine. 

  • To endorse. 

  • To join in or form a league, union, or association. 

  • To spend time socially; keep company. 

  • To be associative. 

  • To connect evidentially, or in the mind or imagination. 

noun
  • A companion; a comrade. 

  • One that habitually accompanies or is associated with another; an attendant circumstance. 

  • A person united with another or others in an act, enterprise, or business; a partner. 

  • One of a pair of elements of an integral domain (or a ring) such that the two elements are divisible by each other (or, equivalently, such that each one can be expressed as the product of the other with a unit). 

  • Somebody with whom one works, coworker, colleague. 

  • A member of an institution or society who is granted only partial status or privileges. 

adj
  • Joined with another or others and having lower status. 

  • Having partial status or privileges. 

  • Following or accompanying; concomitant. 

herd

verb
  • To associate; to ally oneself with, or place oneself among, a group or company. 

  • To manage, care for or guard a herd 

  • To act as a herdsman or a shepherd. 

  • To unite or associate in a herd 

  • To move or drive a herd. 

  • To unite or associate in a herd; to feed or run together, or in company. 

  • To form or put into a herd. 

noun
  • A number of domestic animals assembled together under the watch or ownership of a keeper. 

  • Any collection of animals gathered or travelling in a company. 

  • A crowd, a mass of people or things; a rabble. 

How often have the words associate and herd occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )