forerunner

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

/ ˈfɔrˌrʌn ər, ˈfoʊr-, fɔrˈrʌn ər, foʊr- /

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

Melchior is the forerunner of the aunt who always gave me socks.

Keep Christmas Commercialized! |P. J. O’Rourke |December 6, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
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 |DAILY BEAST
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 |DAILY BEAST
The organization started by Norquist is a forerunner to the Tea Party.

Vicious Rift on the Right |Eli Lake, Ben Jacobs |October 25, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

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 |DAILY BEAST
They are the sure, and even swift, forerunner of great changes.

Past and Present |Thomas Carlyle
Like his forerunner he leapt on the back of the hindmost sheep.

Bob, Son of Battle |Alfred Ollivant
One of the most famous of these is the legend of Theophilus, the forerunner of Faust.

The Evolution of Love |Emil Lucka
The next day was a counterpart of its forerunner, except that it got more on my nerves.

Wings of the Wind |Credo Harris
The tall cross is the emblem of the prophet, as a forerunner of the crucified one.

Tuscan Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century |Estelle M. Hurll

forerunner

/ (ˈfɔːˌrʌnə) /

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