Herald

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A herald is an official messenger who announces important information. In past times heralds were used, e.g., to convey messages between kings or others in positions of authority or to inform the population at large of significant events. Nowadays, with the development of modern means of communication, heralds are no longer used for these purposes and their presence is largely confined to ceremonial occasions – see further heraldry. Those who convey messages between the powerful or those in authority are no longer referred to as heralds but as envoys, emissaries, or intermediaries.

Nonetheless, the word herald continues to be used, metaphorically, in at least two contexts:

  • One event is sometimes spoken of as a (or the) herald of another when the first ‘announces’ the second in the sense of preceding and being a sign of it, as in ‘I think that the appointment of a new CEO may be the herald of far-reaching changes in the company’ or ‘The first primroses of the year are often seen as a herald of spring’. Herald may also be used as a verb with the meaning ‘to precede and be a sign of’, as in ‘The resignation of the Prime Minister heralds a period of great political uncertainty’ or ‘High-pitched laughter at the front door heralded the children’s return from their walk’.
  • Many newspapers in the English-speaking world have the word herald as part of their title, thereby casting themselves as the successors of the heralds who in earlier times kept the public informed by proclaiming the news of the day in the centre of towns and cities. In the UK, for example, there was The Daily Herald, published from 1912 to 1964 and strongly supportive of the policies of the Labour Party, while better known north of the border, there is The Herald, a Scottish broadsheet founded in 1783 as The Glasgow Herald and said to be the longest running national newspaper in the world.

See also heraldry.