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Comment by johnisgood | Hacker News Reader

I have to be honest I have never heard of the word "herald" and I have been in many settings since I was a kid. I bet many natives are in my shoes.

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If you're a native English speaker you've probably seen it, even if you didn't know what it meant.

A common context in which it's used is in the idiom "herald a new era" - here's a search: https://www.google.com/search?q="heralds+a+new+era" which shows that it's pretty common.

It's also used in the names of many newspapers around the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herald_(newspaper)

There's also the Christmas carol, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hark!_The_Herald_Angels_Sing

But I suppose if you don't already know the word "herald" you might just put that down to weird religious language.

I am getting down-voted (for saying I did not know of this word, which is wild), but I asked a couple of people from the US and UK and they could not tell what it means, not without a dictionary.

It is a small sample, but you could ask your family and friends.

Plus, I still prefer something that most if not all people know: news-teller over herald, so I would have translated it to that.

if you're going to claim that something is not a valid translation of a word, you should probably know what it means first--duh?

People quickly jump to conclusions all the time on here. I did not claim that it is not a valid translation. All I said is that I did not know the word and that probably many native English speakers do not know it either. Additionally I claimed that I think it is better to use "news-speaker" instead of "herald" as it is obvious to most if not all people who speak English, whether native or not. I am fine with "reporter", too.

You could go around and ask people if they know the meaning of "herald". I did, and many people did not know, but "news-teller" is definitely obvious, and as I have previously said in two other comments: while "news-teller" is not a standard or formally recognized English word, it is likely that many English speakers would still recognize and understand its meaning, more so than "herald", in my opinion, and in accordance to my experiences.

Language evolves. :)

The downvoting patterns of HN are often disheartening and illogical af

I am very much inclined to agree.

It is unfortunate that meaningful discourse often suffers when individuals form hasty judgments based solely on the initial few words of a comment, or when they make assumptions and jump to conclusions without fully considering the underlying content and intent. In my experience, I frequently encounter down-votes in such situations, which I find quite disappointing, especially when these down-votes occur without any accompanying explanation or constructive feedback. Such superficial engagement diminishes the quality of discussion and discourages thoughtful contributions, IMO.

TL;DR: Down-voting without explanation is quite frustrating. People hastily form misguided judgments on content they haven't fully understood, think "I don't like it" and down-vote without consideration (and any form of feedback or constructive criticism).

“News teller” is blatantly non-standard English. It immediately reads as either a deliberate anachronistic affectation, or a bad literal translation (in this case, it is indeed the latter).

That might be the case, but while "news-teller" is not a standard or formally recognized English word, it is likely that many English speakers would still recognize and understand its meaning, more so than "herald", in my opinion. I am fine with "reporter", too. FWIW I provided a literal translation.

Check out my other replies if you are interested[1].

In any case, language evolves. :)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44845717, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44845575

“News-teller” is recognizably not standard English. In particular, we don’t commonly use “teller” in that way. No native English speaker would say “news-teller” in ordinary speech or writing.

A more idiomatic translation would be “reporter”.

Yes, I am fine with "reporter" too. I just provided a literal translation, and as I said in another comment, that while "news-teller" is not a standard or formally recognized English word, it is likely that many English speakers would still recognize and understand its meaning, more so than "herald", in my opinion.

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