Dictionaries › English

herald

Pronunciation: /ˈhɛɹəld/

The English word “herald” has 7 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A messenger, especially one bringing important news.
  2. A harbinger, giving signs of things to come.
  3. An official whose speciality is heraldry, especially one between the ranks of pursuivant and king-of-arms
  4. A moth of the species Scoliopteryx libatrix.
  5. A handbill consisting of an advertisement.

verb

  1. To proclaim or announce an event.
  2. To greet something with excitement; to hail.

Etymology

From Latin heraldus, from Middle English herald, herauld, heraud, from Anglo-Norman heraud, from Old French heraut, hiraut (modern French héraut), from Frankish *heriwald, from Proto-Germanic *harjawaldaz, a compound consisting of Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“army”) + *h₂welh₁- (“to be strong”). Doublet of Harold and Harald; compare Walter, which has these elements reversed.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “herald” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.