Herald

How to spell herald

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce herald

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does herald mean?

1. nounAn official messenger who brings news, or a person or thing that signals something is coming.
2. verbTo be a sign that something is about to happen, or to announce something publicly.

Herald in a sentence

• noun

  The royal herald read the proclamation to the assembled crowd.

• verb

  These new figures may herald a recovery in the housing market.

• noun

  The first warm morning felt like a herald of spring.

• verb

  Critics herald the film as a turning point for the studio.

Where does herald come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word goes back to a Germanic compound, the Frankish name *Hariwald, which joined heri meaning 'army' to wald meaning 'to rule or wield', so it literally described someone who commands or wields the army. That personal name passed into Old French as heraut or herault, where it came to mean an officer who made official proclamations and managed the elaborate business of coats of arms and tournaments. English borrowed the word in the late 1300s, keeping the sense of an official messenger who announced important news. From the idea of someone who announces, the figurative meaning grew: a herald became any sign or forerunner of what is coming. The closely related study of coats of arms, heraldry, preserves the same root, and the silent shift from the French -t ending to the English -d is the small spelling quirk worth remembering.

How the word is built

• herald (from Frankish heriwald: army-ruler, from heri 'army'
• wald 'to rule')