forerunner
/ˈfɔɹˌɹʌnɚ/ noun C1- A runner at the front or ahead.
- 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.
- A precursor or harbinger, a warning ahead.
- A forebear, an ancestor, a predecessor. · Bakelite is a forerunner of today's plastics.
- A postage stamp used in the time before a region or area issues stamps of its own.
Plural forerunners
From the library
The ship drew on and had safely passed the strait, which some volcanic shock has made between the Calasareigne and Jaros islands; had doubled Pomègue, and approached the harbor under topsails, jib, and spanker, but so slowly and sedately that the idlers, with that instinct which is the forerunner of evil, asked one another what misfortune could have happened on board.
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