forerun

English

Etymology

From fore- +‎ run. Piecewise cognate of Swedish förrinna.

Verb

forerun (third-person singular simple present foreruns, present participle forerunning, simple past foreran, past participle forerun)

1. To run in front.
   • 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 22, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings‎, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 131:

     Bailey still sat, doubled over his book […] A finger forerunning his eyes along the page.

2. To precede; to forecast or foreshadow.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene 4]:

     These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:

     And in herself she moan’d, ‘Too late, too late!’ / Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn, / A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high, / Croak’d, […]

   • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter V.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:

     Discontent foreran the Two Mutinies, and more or less it lurkingly survived them.

Derived terms

• forerunner

Translations

to run in front

Latin: antecurrō