formerly, an official crier or messenger
formerly, a person who officiated at tournaments
somebody or something that is a sign of the arrival of something
It was the lark, the herald of the morn — Shakespeare
an officer responsible for recording names, pedigrees, and armorial bearings or tracing genealogies
in Britain, an officer of arms ranking above a pursuivant and below a king of arms
a moth of N Europe with brown mottled wings: Scoliopteryx libatrix
[Middle English from early French hiraut, of Germanic origin]