Jonahs or Jeremiahs

My apologies are offered to those crowds of Wordsmith aficionados who were deprived of information updates during the last couple of weeks. Mrs W. and I were quite busy preparing for and making a trip to Mackay on a mercy mission to visit a very ill friend. Unfortunately, for the second time this year, we were threatened by the approach of a cyclone, so we were obliged to cut the time of the visit short and flee back home. The cyclone struck the coast around the Mackay - Airlie Beach area early on Sunday morning, by which time we were safe and sound at home on the hill. We promise not to make any more trips away until the Cyclone Season has definitely finished, as it is not fair to the people in the districts we pass through. We do not wish to be regarded as a cause of bad luck, (a Jonah), or a foreteller of disaster, (a Cassandra or Jeremiah). People have a habit of dealing harshly with those they regard as harbingers of doom.

This phrase, "Harbinger of doom" has a long history. The word 'harbinger' first appears in the 12th Century when it meant a Lodging House Keeper. By the 13th Century it had changed slightly to refer to a scout who went ahead of a Royal Court to book lodgings, not an easy task considering the number of hangers-on accompanying the King. Next the word meaning altered slightly to refer to a scout who went ahead of an attacking force. I'm sure he would have had bad news to convey at times. Over the following centuries, it changed to a harbinger of things rather than approaching Royalty or armies. Finally it came to indicate the warning of dire happenings. The first time the word was used as a warning of disaster appears to have been in Scotland, where they seem to have refined it to an art form. A modern fictional Scottish character who was a good doom harbinger was Sgt Frazer in "Dad's Army" whose catch-phrases were, " We're all doomed ! Doomed I tell ye !"

This gradual change in the meanings of English words is quite common and I need to remind myself of this fact when I see beloved words being "misused".