Harbinger
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something.
"harbinger of danger; harbinger of doom; harbinger of spring"
- 2 something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone wordnet
- 3 One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when travelling, to provide and prepare lodgings. obsolete
"outward decency […] is the Harbinger to provide the lodging for inward holinesse"
- 1 To announce or precede; to be a harbinger of. transitive
"It was harbingered also by the terrible comet of January, which appeared in a cadent and obscure house, denoting sickness and death; […]"
- 2 foreshadow or presage wordnet
Example
More examples"The crowing of a cock is the harbinger of dawn."
Etymology
Originally, a person sent in advance to arrange lodgings. From Middle English herberjour, herbergeour, from Old French herbergeor (French hébergeur), from herbergier (“to set up camp; to shelter; to take shelter”) + -or (suffix forming agent nouns), from Old High German heribergan, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army camp, shelter”). Compare German Herberge, Italian albergo, Dutch herberg, English harbor. More at here, borrow.
Related phrases
More for "harbinger"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.