harbinger \HAHR-bun-jer\ noun
> 1 : one that pioneers in or initiates a major change : precursor
> 2 : one that presages or foreshadows what is to come
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> Examples:
> The February thaw is a harbinger of spring -- even if it's followed by a few more snowstorms.
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> "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
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> 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.
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> Test Your Memory: What is the meaning of "lobscouse," our Word of the Day from January 25, 2011? The answer is ... http://bit.ly/e25CQ8
