means A woolly, hoofed domestic mammal kept for its fleece, meat, and milk, and proverbially known for following the flock.

from From Old English 'scēap' (also 'scǣp'), a West Germanic word — compare Dutch 'schaap' and German 'Schaf' — that has named the animal for well over a thousand years. Curiously, English kept 'sheep' identical in singular and plural, a relic of an old neuter noun class that didn't bother changing its ending. The animal's name stayed Germanic even after the Norman conquest handed us French-derived 'mutton' for the meat on the plate — peasants tended the 'sheep,' nobles ate the 'mutton.'