harbinger

English

WOTD – 26 March 2007

Etymology

Originally, a person that is sent in advance to arrange lodgings. From Middle English herberjour, herbergeour, from Old French herbergeor (French hébergeur), from Frankish *heriberga (“lodging, inn”, literally “army shelter”), from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army camp, shelter”). Compare German Herberge, Italian albergo, Dutch herberg, English harbor. More at here, borrow.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːbɪndʒə/
• (US) enPR: härʹbĭnjər, IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹbɪnd͡ʒəɹ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

harbinger (plural harbingers)

1. A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something.

   Synonyms: forewarning, herald, omen, premonition, sign, signal, prophet

   harbinger of danger; harbinger of doom; harbinger of spring

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 150, column 2:

     Make all our Trumpets ſpeak, giue thẽ all breath / Thoſe clamorous Harbingers of Blood, & Death

   • 1828, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney:

     I knew by these harbingers who were coming.

   • 2021 March 26, Alexis Soloski, “‘Kid 90’ and the Days When Even Wild TV Teens Had Privacy”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     It’s to realize that Moon Frye, by cheerfully surveilling her own life, and those first Real Worlders, by agreeing to the constant presence of producers and cameras, were the harbingers of today’s culture, in which self-image is shaped in the expectation of a lens and personhood collates with brand identity.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:harbinger.
2. (obsolete) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when travelling, to provide and prepare lodgings.
   • 1644, Thomas Fuller, "Truth Maintained" (a sermon)

     outward decency […] is the Harbinger to provide the lodging for inward holinesse

Derived terms

• harbinger-of-spring

 

Translations

that which foretells the coming of something

• Afrikaans: voorbode
• Bulgarian: предвестник (bg) m (predvestnik)
• Catalan: anunciador m, herald m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 預兆／预兆 (zh) (yùzhào)

• Czech: zvěstovatel m
• Danish: varsel n, forvarsel n
• Dutch: voorbode (nl) m
• Esperanto: omeno
• Finnish: airut (fi), sanansaattaja (fi)
• French: présage (fr) m
• German: (person) Vorbote (de) m, (thing) Omen (de) n, Vorzeichen (de) n
• Greek: προάγγελος (el) m (proángelos), πρόδρομος (el) m (pródromos)
• Hungarian: előjel (hu), előfutár (hu), előhírnök (hu)
• Icelandic: boðberi (is) m, fyrirboði (is) m, undanfari m
• Irish: réamhtheachtaire m
• Italian: (person) messaggero (it) m, araldo (it) m, (thing) presagio (it) m, precursore (it), foriero (it), profeta (it) m, premonitore m, premonitrice f
• Japanese: 前触れ (ja) (まえぶれ, maebure)
• Korean: 선구자 (ko) (seon'guja), 전조 (ko) (jeonjo)
• Latin: praenuntius m
• Norwegian: forsmak
• Polish: zwiastun (pl) m
• Portuguese: arauto (pt) pl, presságio (pt)
• Russian: провозве́стник (ru) m (provozvéstnik), предве́стник (ru) m (predvéstnik)
• Serbo-Croatian: predšasnik (sh), najava (sh), navesnik, nagovest, nagoveštaj (sh)
• Spanish: anunciador (es) m, anunciante m, heraldo (es) m
• Swedish: förebud (sv), förlöpare
• Welsh: cennad m, rhagredegydd m

Verb

harbinger (third-person singular simple present harbingers, present participle harbingering, simple past and past participle harbingered)

1. (transitive) To announce or precede; to be a harbinger of.

   Synonym: herald

   • 1841, William Harrison Ainsworth, chapter VIII, in Old Saint Paul's, published 1903, page 94:

     It was harbingered also by the terrible comet of January, which appeared in a cadent and obscure house, denoting sickness and death; […]

Translations

to announce

• Bulgarian: предвещавам (bg) (predveštavam)
• Catalan: anunciar (ca)
• Czech: zvěstovat impf, věstit impf
• Dutch: aankondigen (nl)
• French: annoncer (fr), présager (fr)
• German: ankündigen (de)
• Greek: προαναγγέλλω (el) (proanangéllo)
• Italian: annunciare (it), presagire (it), premonire (it), profetizzare (it)
• Norwegian: innvarsle
• Ottoman Turkish: مژده‌لمك (müjdelemek)
• Russian: предвеща́ть (ru) (predveščátʹ)
• Spanish: anunciar (es)
• Swedish: förebåda (sv), varsla (sv)

See also

• bellwether

Further reading

• Harbinger in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• “harbinger”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.