town crier
2
9.5
- noun
- Archaic
:
heraldo
- In history class, we learned that the town crier was responsible for making public announcements.
Examples
-
What was once the medieval task of the town crier to inform everyone of the events of the day has returned, because life then was community-based and not, as in the latter 20th century, insular and cocooned into unextended family units in their fenced-off dwelling.
Blog text (30) -
Every Sunday, the town crier delivers the week's news at the town square.
-
"All is well!" pipes the town crier, in a scratchy voice.
Fiction book (1990) -
Town criers shouted the latest news; the people at the market were gossiping or working, and the fields too seemed lively with farmhands gathering the crop.
Blog text (18) -
The town crier rang his bell loudly to gather the villagers for the announcement.
Synonyms
19
9.8
An official who calls out public news and orders in a town or court
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'town crier' is directly compositional: combining 'town' (settlement) with 'crier' (someone who proclaims public notices) yields the meaning of an official who announces news in the town. This is a literal, cross-linguistically familiar occupational noun (despite being somewhat historical), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
The noun town crier comes from old times when an official, the crier, walked the town streets, rang a bell, and loudly called out the news. Because he made 'public announcements' for everyone to hear, the phrase means a person who announces news aloud.