Lingui · a word-story

flock → pod

Full etymology treatment on flock (your instinct about its baggage was right), the alternatives, and why pod is the good answer.

Where "flock" comes from

OE flocc "crowd, band, troop, company" → ON flokkr "band, troop"

Here's the twist: flock originally meant a company of people — a band or troop. Only in Middle English did it specialize onto animals (sheep, then birds). So the human sense is the older one — we didn't borrow it from sheep; sheep borrowed it from us.

The "congregation" sense — a pastor's flock — arrives ~1200s from the Church's shepherd metaphor (Latin pastor = shepherd; the faithful as sheep to be led).

Why it feels off (your instinct, confirmed)

The negative charge is all downstream of the sheep association: "sheeple," herd mentality, "following the flock," passive conformity — plus the paternalism of the religious flock (a passive congregation led by a shepherd). So "flock" quietly says: led, passive, undifferentiated, needs a shepherd. Exactly the vibe a co-regulation community wants to avoid — your people are agents, not sheep.

The alternatives

group	Neutral but cold — no warmth, no image, forgettable.
gang	Loyal + energetic, but crime/threat baggage.
tribe	Deep belonging, but appropriation concerns + "tribalism" (us-vs-them).
clan	Kinship + loyalty, but insular/exclusive + specific cultural baggage.
pod	The winner — see below.

Verdict: pod. A pod is the collective noun for dolphins, orcas, whales — the most social, cooperative, intelligent mammals there are. Pods communicate constantly, hunt together, and care for their young and sick collectively — that's literally co-regulation in the wild. It's naturally small + self-contained (a handful, not a herd), carries zero hierarchy or passivity baggage, and reads modern, warm, and a little cute. It even reinforces "a small self-contained unit" via its other sense (escape pod, seed pod). You already felt it — this is why.

How it resolves with Shepherd

You spotted the grammar exactly: herd is the action (to tend), flock is the collective noun for sheep. Keep the split clean in DESA:

• Shepherd = the role (one who tends, with care). • to herd = the verb (the tending). • pod = the people (a small cooperative unit).

So a Shepherd tends a pod. Yes, it gently mixes metaphors (orca pods don't have shepherds) — but that's a feature: you keep "shepherd" for its warmth of care while dropping "flock" and its sheep. Nobody in the room is livestock; they're a pod.

This is exactly the kind of word-story Lingui (run by Cody) surfaces in-app — "did you know your pod is named for orcas?" Ready to lock pod as the group unit (home pod ~5, events made of pods). — Lingui / Designee · July 12