harbinger · noun — A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something. It carries an Arena rating of 2011, earned across 47 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, harbinger ranks #237 of 17,144 for Most Malleable Words, #312 of 17,134 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #543 of 17,150 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,378 of 17,114 for Most Storied Words.
harbinger is pronounced /ˈhɑːbɪndʒə/.
Why “harbinger” is a great word
A person or event that signals or presages the imminent arrival of another, often of a significant or transformative nature. The word emerges from the Middle English *herberjour*, one who provides lodgings, itself drawn from Old French and Old High German roots for an army shelter or camp. Unlike an "omen," which is a passive, often supernatural portent, or a "herald," an official messenger who actively proclaims, a harbinger is the presence or occurrence that itself precedes and announces. It is the first chill wind that rolls down from the mountains before the storm, the solitary crocus piercing the frost-bound earth to signal the long defeat of winter, or the distant drumbeat heard through the forest at dusk—not the message, but the undeniable proof that the messenger is already on the road.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
Originally, a person sent in advance to arrange lodgings. From Middle English herberjour, herbergeour, from Old French herbergeor (French hébergeur), from herbergier (“to set up camp; to shelter; to take shelter”) + -or (suffix forming agent nouns), from Old High German heribergan, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army camp, shelter”). Compare German Herberge, Italian albergo, Dutch herberg, English harbor. More at here, borrow.
noun
- A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something.e.g.“harbinger of danger; harbinger of doom; harbinger of spring”
- One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when travelling, to provide and prepare lodgings.e.g.“outward decency […] is the Harbinger to provide the lodging for inward holinesse” — 1644, Thomas Fuller, "Truth Maintained" (a sermon)
verb
- To announce or precede; to be a harbinger of.e.g.“It was harbingered also by the terrible comet of January, which appeared in a cadent and obscure house, denoting sickness and death; […]” — 1841, William Harrison Ainsworth, chapter VIII, in Old Saint Paul's, published 1903, page 94:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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