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For the last week I have been teaching my more advanced students on Cafetalk a slightly uncommon word: harbinger. According to my monolingual dictionary, a ‘harbinger’ is:
Something that is a harbinger of something else is a sign that it is going to happen.
The November air stung my cheeks , a harbinger of winter.
The example sentence (in italics) did not surprise me at all since I feel we mostly connect this word to the seasons with sentences such as:
The singing of the nightingales is a harbinger of spring.
Tulips beginning to bloom is a harbinger of spring.
The pain in my bones was a harbinger of winter.
Birds flying south is a harbinger of winter.
I feel we mostly use ‘harbinger’ with winter and spring, although any season would be correct! We can, as the dictionary explains, use it in other situations such as:
The war in Ukraine is a harbinger of WW3. (I don’t want to think about this one :( )
Getting back to a more cheerful topic, in London, it used to be said that ‘The singing of the nightingales is a harbinger of spring.’ Indeed, the Times newspaper used to get letters from readers saying that they ‘had heard the first nightingale of spring.’ If your letter was interesting enough to be published it was considered a great honor since, at that time, only very well educated people could get a letter published in the Times.
Actually, I used to live in 鶯谷 in Gifu so I know the rather difficult kanji for nightingale. Sadly, I never heard one while I was there because I think Po, my famous ex-cat, ate all of them!
Have a great week,
Buri
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