harbinger
an indicator of future things
TRANSLATION
harbinger = das Omen, der/die Vorbote/Vorbotin --- GOOGLE INDEX harbinger: approximately 4,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Some scientists say the unusually dry weather in New Zealand could be a HARBINGER of climate change.
(BBC News)
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Right now, Coinbase is limited to U.S. bank accounts, but with the new round of funding, led by Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson -- considered a HARBINGER of startup success after his early investments in Twitter, Zynga and Kickstarter -- the company plans to expand.
(International Business Times)
(BBC News)
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Right now, Coinbase is limited to U.S. bank accounts, but with the new round of funding, led by Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson -- considered a HARBINGER of startup success after his early investments in Twitter, Zynga and Kickstarter -- the company plans to expand.
(International Business Times)
Did you
know?
harbinger
noun
- a person or thing that shows that something is going to happen soon, especially something bad
(Cambridge Dictionaries)
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Harbinger is from the Middle English "herbengar," meaning a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings, and the Old French "herbergeor" (to provide lodgings). The French is ultimately from a Germanic source such as "herberge" (compare to the Modern German beherbergen, to accommodate, provide lodgings).
The original meaning of someone who secures lodging for another usually referred to a royal officer who rode a day's journey in advance of the court when travelling. This is where the modern sense of harbinger derives from, which can refer to a person, a thing or an event that gives notice of something to come.
Harbinger is also related to the English "harbour" (lodging for ships), an early 13th century word that probably stemmed from the Old English "herebeorg" (lodgings), which derived from "here" (army, as in the German Heer) + "beorg" (refuge shelter).
The word "here," as in the sense of an army, furthermore comes from the Old English "hergian," a verb meaning to make war, ravage, plunder. Hergian was the term used in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to describe what the Vikings did to England for instance.
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SYNONYMS
omen, portent, precursor, forerunner, a forerunner of things to come, messenger, sign, signal, herald
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"This nice weather could be a harbinger of spring."
noun
- a person or thing that shows that something is going to happen soon, especially something bad
(Cambridge Dictionaries)
---
Harbinger is from the Middle English "herbengar," meaning a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings, and the Old French "herbergeor" (to provide lodgings). The French is ultimately from a Germanic source such as "herberge" (compare to the Modern German beherbergen, to accommodate, provide lodgings).
The original meaning of someone who secures lodging for another usually referred to a royal officer who rode a day's journey in advance of the court when travelling. This is where the modern sense of harbinger derives from, which can refer to a person, a thing or an event that gives notice of something to come.
Harbinger is also related to the English "harbour" (lodging for ships), an early 13th century word that probably stemmed from the Old English "herebeorg" (lodgings), which derived from "here" (army, as in the German Heer) + "beorg" (refuge shelter).
The word "here," as in the sense of an army, furthermore comes from the Old English "hergian," a verb meaning to make war, ravage, plunder. Hergian was the term used in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to describe what the Vikings did to England for instance.
---
SYNONYMS
omen, portent, precursor, forerunner, a forerunner of things to come, messenger, sign, signal, herald
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"This nice weather could be a harbinger of spring."
