forerunner
(fɔəˈrʌnə(r))
[f. prec. + -er1.]
1. a. One who runs before, esp. one sent to prepare the way and herald a great man's approach, a harbinger; also, a guide. Chiefly transf. and fig.
First used fig. as rendering of L. præcursor, esp. of John the Baptist as ‘the Forerunner of Christ’.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 13208 (Cott.) For-þi es he cald his foriner [MS. app. reads former; Gött. forinnier], And cristes aun messenger. c 1440 York Myst. xxi. 16 Þus am I comen in message right, And be fore-reyner in certayne. 1541 Coverdale Old Faith ix. (1547) F viij, John the baptist, whych was the fore runner of..Christ. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 292 Followyng y⊇ infallible foot⁓steps of thy forerunner Nature. 1634 Heywood Witches Lanc. i. i. Wks. 1874 IV. 175 Farewell Gentlemen, Ile be your fore-runner, To give him notice of your visite. a 1711 Ken Preparatives Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 144 Death our Fore-runner is, and guides To Sion. 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 520 Did he some loan..require, Or came fore-runner of your scepter'd Sire? 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 594 The Forerunner of our Lord. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 75 When Claudius the..forerunner of the Roman army, appeared at Rhegium. |
b. Applied
transf. to things.
| 1579 E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Mar. 11 The swallow..useth to be counted..the forerunner of springe. 1622 Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 115 Advent Sundaies..are to Christmas Day..forerunners to prepare for it. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. Contents, Chap. I The Introduction or forerunner. 1751 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) III. ccxlii. 109 A sort of panegyric of you..which will be a very useful fore-runner for you. |
c. pl. The advance-guard of an army. Chiefly
transf. and
fig.| 1535 Coverdale Wisd. xii. 8 Thou..sendest y⊇ forerunners of thyne hoost, euen hornettes. 1645 E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (1661) 276 They..cryed out, that they were the fore-runners of Popery. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 233 Four thousand cavalry..had been sent forward by Servilius as his forerunners. |
d. Skiing. [
tr. G.
vorläufer.] A skier who runs over the course as a preliminary to a skiing race.
| 1949 P. Cummings Dict. Sports, Forerunner (Skiing), one who breaks a trail first before a competition starts. 1964 Times 31 Jan. 4/1 Three forerunners then came down to open the course. |
2. One whom another follows or comes after, a predecessor; also, an ancestor.
| 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 2 Arthur, that great fore-runner of thy bloud. 1683 D. A. Art Converse 7 Long descriptions of their own Pedigree, and grandure of their fore-runners. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) I. 13 My..observations will be altogether of a different cast from any of my fore⁓runners. 1866 J. Martineau Ess. I. 15 Comte claims Hume as his chief forerunner in philosophy. |
| transf. 1663 Gerbier Counsel A iv a, The fore-runner of this Discourse was printed and dedicated to the King. |
3. That which foreruns or foreshadows something else; a prognostic or sign of something to follow.
| 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 39 The wrongs of my youth are the fore-runners of my woes in age. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 88 A convulsion often-times is a fore-runner or a messenger of death. 1764 Harmer Observ. xvii. 42 A squall of wind and clouds of dust are the usual forerunners of these first rains. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 112 The famine and the pestilence which are usually the last outcome and not the forerunners of a siege. |
4. Naut. a. A rope fastened to a harpoon.
Cf. fore-ganger.
b. A rope rove through a single block on the foremast.
c. (See
quots.)
| a. 1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. ii. (1711) 158 The first of them is ty'd to the Fore-runner, or small Line. |
| b. 1805 in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. 189 note, Got forerunners and tackles forward to secure foremast. |
| c. 1815 Falconer's Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Fore-Runner of the Log-line, a small piece of red buntin, laid into that line at a certain distance from the log. 1841 R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 106 Fore-runner, a piece of rag, terminating the stray-line of the log line. |
Hence
ˈforeˌrunnership, the condition or dignity of a forerunner.
| 1881 A. B. Bruce Chief End Revelat. vi. 300 This fore⁓runnership of Christ. |