The position, office, or role of being a harbinger; the state or quality of serving as an announcer or signal of something to come.
Formed from 'harbinger' plus the suffix '-ship,' which denotes a position, office, or state of being. This follows English patterns like 'kingship,' 'friendship,' and 'membership' in creating abstract nouns from root words.
Terms ending in '-ship' are wonderfully productive in English—we can theoretically make almost any noun into an '-ship' word to indicate an abstract state or position, which is why 'harbingership' works even though it's rarely used. It shows the flexibility built into English word formation.
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