"Harbinger" has been used a dozen times in AWADtalk, so we all know what it means. I should think. But its etymology has not been given, and I find it interesting. When important persons were travelling, they had to have someone go ahead of them to be sure they had a place to stay for the night. That was "herberge". The advance person was a "gar". So his duties as messenger was rather different from the poetic usages.
harbinger
SYLLABICATION:
har·bin·ger
PRONUNCIATION:
härbn-jr
NOUN:
One that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a forerunner.
TRANSITIVE
VERB:
Inflected forms: har·bin·gered, har·bin·ger·ing, har·bin·gers
To signal the approach of; presage.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English herbengar, person sent ahead to arrange lodgings, from Old
French herbergeor, from herbergier, to provide lodging for, from herberge,
lodging, of Germanic origin. See koro- in Appendix I.
