forerunner

C2+ Topic:Verbs of Movement

US /ˈfɔrˌrʌnər/ UK /ˈfɔːrʌnə/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a predecessor or early sign of something to come

The telegraph was a forerunner of the modern internet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a predecessor or early sign... precursor predecessor herald harbinger antecedent pioneer portent prototype

Opposites

successor descendant follower

Word family

Related forms forerun fore run

Etymology

From forerun ('to run before', from Old English fore- plus rinnan) plus the agent suffix -er; a calque of Latin praecursor. It denotes a predecessor or early sign of what follows.

fore Old English rinnan Old English

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Topics

Verbs of Movement Word Formation & Derivatives

# forerunner

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈfɔrˌrʌnər
**IPA (UK):** ˈfɔːrʌnə

## Meanings
1. a predecessor or early sign of something to come

## Examples
- The telegraph was a forerunner of the modern internet.

## Synonyms
- precursor
- predecessor
- herald
- harbinger
- antecedent
- pioneer
- portent
- prototype

## Antonyms
- successor
- descendant
- follower

## Related Forms
- forerun
- fore
- run

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: fore
- Root: rinnan

## Etymology
From forerun ('to run before', from Old English fore- plus rinnan) plus the agent suffix -er; a calque of Latin praecursor. It denotes a predecessor or early sign of what follows.

## AI Etymology
Forerunner is from forerun ('to run before', from Old English fore- plus rinnan) plus the agent suffix -er; a calque of Latin praecursor. It denotes a predecessor or early sign of what follows. Important recorded forms include fore (Old English) and rinnan (Old English). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers a predecessor or early sign of something to come. The wider family includes related words such as forerun, fore, and run.

## Topics
- Verbs of Movement
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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forerunner

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