While herald the verb is more common today, herald the noun is older. When the word was first used in the early 14th century, it referred to an official at a tournament (one of those knightly sporting events the Middle Ages are famous for); the herald's duties included making announcements, hence the word's uses relating to announcements, literal and metaphorical. The word is ultimately Germanic in origin, coming from a long-lost word that can be translated as "one directing or having authority over a body of armed men," though like so many words of 14th century vintage, it came to English by way of Anglo-French. The resemblance between herald and the name Harold is not coincidental: Harold is a modern form of Chariovalda, the name of a 1st century C.E. leader of the Batavi, a tribe who lived on the lower Rhine. The Germanic source of Chariovalda, turned into a generic noun, is also the source of herald.