HARBOUR

Harber English: metonymic occupational name for a keeper of a lodging house, from late OE herebeorg shelter, lodging (from here army + beorg shelter). For the change of -er- to -ar- in the first syllable, cf. Marchant. (2)

HARBOUR and ARBER, HARBER, HARBOR derive from the Old English word herebeorg, meaning a provider of safe lodging in the sense of someone who goes ahead to arrange for that lodging. From that comes our word harbinger. It didn’t tkake much time for people to apply the word to a tavern-either the place itself, or the tavern-keeper. And a tavern may well have been a place of security and comfort now and then.

Vars.: Harbo(u)r, Arber, Harberer; Harbage, Herbage, Harbidge, Harbisher .