avant-

Avant- is a prefix meaning “before” or “forward.” It is very occasionally used in some technical terms.

Avant- comes from French avant, meaning “before.” Avant, in turn, derives from Latin ante, “before,” which is the source of the English combining form ante-.

In most cases, avant- is joined to other words with a hyphen, as in avant-courier.

The most common word that features the prefix avant- is avant-garde, “the advance group in any field whose works are characterized by unorthodox and experimental methods.”

The prefix avant- means “before,” while the -garde part of the word comes from French, “guard.” Avant-garde literally means “before guard” or, more clearly, “forward guard.” If this translation sounds familiar, that may be because avant-garde related to the term vanguard.

What are some words that use the prefix avant-?

• avant-courier
• avant-gardism
• avantist

What are some other forms that avant- may be commonly confused with?

• alveolo-
• ant-
• av.
• avi-
• even-
• over-
• ovo-

The word courier means “messenger.” With this in mind, who was the avant-courier of the army, historically?