Word of the Day

: February 13, 2011

harbinger

noun HAHR-bun-jer

What It Means

1 : one that pioneers in or initiates a major change : precursor

2 : one that presages or foreshadows what is to come

harbinger in Context

The February thaw is a harbinger of spring -- even if it's followed by a few more snowstorms.

"When Packers outside linebacker Clay Matthews had three sacks against Philadelphia in the opener, it was a harbinger of things to come for the Eagles. They allowed 50 sacks on the season, the most in the 12-year Andy Reid era." -- From an article by Jim Polzin in the Wisconsin State Journal, January 9, 2011

Did You Know?

When medieval travelers needed lodging for the night, they went looking for a harbinger. As long ago as the 12th century, "harbinger" was used to mean "one who provides lodging" or "a host," but that meaning is now obsolete. By the late 1300s, "harbinger" was also being used for a person sent ahead of a main party to seek lodgings, often for royalty or a campaigning army, but that old sense has largely been left in the past, too. Both of those historical senses are true to the Anglo-French parent of "harbinger," the word "herberge," meaning "lodgings." The most common sense of the word nowadays, the "forerunner" sense, has been with us since the mid-1500s.