Harbinger

WORD OF THE DAY

harbinger /HAHR-bun-jer /  noun 

Definition

1a: one that initiates a major change 

1b: a person or thing that originates or helps open up a new activity, method, or technology 

1c: pioneer

2a: something that foreshadows a future event 

2b: something that gives an anticipatory sign of what is to come

Examples

When the star running back went down with an injury in the team's first game, it turned out to be the harbinger of a disappointing season.

"A lot is riding on the results, which will be widely read as … a harbinger of the 2018 congressional midterm elections." 

— Laura Vozzella, The Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2017

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. 

Later on, 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. 

Those sent ahead would announce the approach of who was following behind, and that's how our modern sense of harbinger (from the Anglo-French herberge, meaning "lodgings") acquired the sense with which we are familiar today, that of something which foretells a future event.