The Trump campaign seems to have felt the impact of "weird." According to the Washington Post, a slide shown to Trump volunteers urges them to "Be normal. Be normal. Be normal."
Here's where etymology leads to the best rabbit holes. A harbinger originally was a harborer, someone who provided lodging. Then the role turned into a sort of military scout: a soldier who went ahead to purvey lodging for officers or a royal train. Obviously, he would also announce the coming of these important personages. Which made him a forecaster. When Shakespeare made the harbingers "clamorous," he was using a word that had been in English for less than a century. It comes from the Latin clamorem, to cry out.
Point in outrage = anger. Point and laugh = dismissal.
Mockery is more powerful than frustrated anger.
The Trump campaign seems to have felt the impact of "weird." According to the Washington Post, a slide shown to Trump volunteers urges them to "Be normal. Be normal. Be normal."
Were Macduff’s clamorous harbingers weird sisters or trumpets of military battle?
Here's where etymology leads to the best rabbit holes. A harbinger originally was a harborer, someone who provided lodging. Then the role turned into a sort of military scout: a soldier who went ahead to purvey lodging for officers or a royal train. Obviously, he would also announce the coming of these important personages. Which made him a forecaster. When Shakespeare made the harbingers "clamorous," he was using a word that had been in English for less than a century. It comes from the Latin clamorem, to cry out.
So the Weird Sisters were forecasters. Vox clamantis in deserto, if you will. Not the sort you'd ask to book your next B&B stay.