Foreganger
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One who or that which goes before; a forerunner; a harbinger; a predecessor. archaic, rare
- 2 A short rope grafted on a harpoon, to which a longer line may be attached.
"The foreganger is most commonly formed of white or untarred rope , which is stronger and more flexible than tarred rope , consequently more easily extended when the harpoon is thrown"
Example
More examples"The foreganger is most commonly formed of white or untarred rope , which is stronger and more flexible than tarred rope , consequently more easily extended when the harpoon is thrown"
Etymology
From Middle English forganger, forgangere, from Old English *foregangere, from foregangan (“to go before, precede, go in front of, project, excel”), equivalent to fore- + ganger. Cognate with Scots foregangare (“a foregoer”), Dutch voorganger (“a predecessor, progenitor”), German Vorgänger (“a predecessor, precursor”), Swedish föregångare (“a forerunner, precursor, progenitor”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.