A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg The linguist Ferdinand de Saussure once said, Time changes all things: there is no reason why language should escape this universal law. A living language, just like humans, adapts with time. All words change, some more than others. In the beginning, to broadcast was to sow seeds by scattering, a diaper was a kind of fabric, and a matrix was a womb. This week well see a few more words that aint what they used to be. harbinger PRONUNCIATION: (HAHR-bin-juhr) MEANING: noun: One that foreshadows the approach of something. verb tr.: To signal the arrival of something. ETYMOLOGY: Originally, a harbinger was a host, a person who provided lodging. With time the sense changed to a person sent in advance to find lodging for an army. From Old French herbergier (to provide lodging for), from herberge (lodging). Ultimately from the Indo-European root koro- (war, host, army) which also gave us harbor, herald, harness, hurry, harangue, and harry. Earliest documented use: 1175. USAGE: It is hard to elude the suspicion that it is a harbinger of further things to come. Colby Cosh; Trigger Warnings are Easy to Ridicule; Macleans (Toronto, Canada); Jun 2, 2014. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong. -Karl Popper, philosopher and a professor (1902-1994)
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 13:00:00 +0000
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