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Forerunner

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A runner at the front or ahead.
  2. 2
    something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone wordnet
  3. 3
    By extension, a non-competitor who leads out the competitors on to the circuit, or who runs/rides the course prior to competitor trials, usually testing or checking the way.
  4. 4
    a person who goes before or announces the coming of another wordnet
  5. 5
    A precursor or harbinger, a warning ahead.

    "How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […]."

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    anything that precedes something similar in time wordnet
  2. 7
    A forebear, an ancestor, a predecessor.

    "Bakelite is a forerunner of today's plastics."

  3. 8
    A postage stamp used in the time before a region or area issues stamps of its own.

Etymology

From Middle English forrenner, foreriner. Calque of Latin praecursor (“one who runs before, a forerunner”). Equivalent to fore- + runner and/or forerun + -er.

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