horde (n.)
A horde is a large, disorderly crowd. The word goes back to the Turkic ordu, camp or army: the ruler’s encampment first, and then any military one.12
It reached English in the 1550s by a long route, through Turkic into Russian and Polish and on westward. The h at the front appears to have been picked up in Polish.1
It travelled with the Golden Horde and the armies of the steppe, seen from outside and at a distance. By the 1610s the word was being used for any uncivilised gang.1
An ordu is an organised thing, with a chain of command and a place for everything. A horde is a rabble. The word travelled west and ended up meaning the opposite of what it started as.12
A horde of tourists filled the square.