forerunner

[fawr-ruhn-er, fohr-, fawr-ruhn-er, fohr-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR forerunner ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

predecessor; ancestor; forebear; precursor.

an omen, sign, or indication of something to follow; portent: The warm evenings were a forerunner of summer.

a person who goes or is sent in advance to announce the coming of someone or something that follows; herald; harbinger.

the Forerunner, John the Baptist.

Origin of forerunner

First recorded in 1250–1300, forerunner is from the Middle English word forrenner. See fore-, runner

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for forerunner

precursor, originator, harbinger, prognostic, author, announcer, advocate, envoy, pioneer, progenitor, prototype, ancestor, advertiser, initiator, predecessor, antecedent, omen, announcement, pattern, augury

Examples from the Web for forerunner

Contemporary Examples of forerunner

Melchior is the forerunner of the aunt who always gave me socks.
Keep Christmas Commercialized!
P. J. O’Rourke
December 6, 2014
Turing conceived and built a computer, the forerunner of all digital computations, that cracked the code.
The Castration of Alan Turing, Britain’s Code-Breaking WWII Hero
Clive Irving
November 29, 2014
By contrast, Ashraf Ghani, the current forerunner in the partial second round results, got record support in Pashtun areas.
Kerry Must Let the Afghan Voters Choose Their Next President
Zardasht Shams
July 11, 2014
The organization started by Norquist is a forerunner to the Tea Party.
Vicious Rift on the Right
Eli Lake, Ben Jacobs
October 25, 2013
I see Dickens as the forerunner to people like Chaplin and Woody Allen, really.
Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens! ‘Lost,’ ‘NCIS,’ ‘Big Love,’ ‘Veep’ Writers on His Legacy
Jace Lacob
February 7, 2012

Historical Examples of forerunner

The ancient prototype and forerunner of political influence.
The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce
Beowulf is the forerunner of that other national dragon-slayer, St. George.
Beowulf
Unknown
Startled, the people wondered was this enactment the forerunner of war.
The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series
Rafael Sabatini
It is looked upon as the forerunner of other and larger ones.
The Last Voyage
Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey
The inn yard was to some extent the forerunner of the theatre.
William Shakespeare
Samuel Levy Bensusan

British Dictionary definitions for forerunner

forerunner

noun

a person or thing that precedes another; precursor

a person or thing coming in advance to herald the arrival of someone or something; harbinger

an indication beforehand of something to follow; omen; portent

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for forerunner

c.1300, from fore + runner. Middle English rendition of Latin praecursor, in reference to John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ. The Old English word was foreboda.