precursor

precursor

noun

Definition of PRECURSOR

1

one that announces or indicates the later arrival of another <18th-century lyric poets like Robert Burns were precursors of the Romantics>

Synonyms angel, foregoer, harbinger, herald, outrider, precursor

Related Words foreboder, foreshadower, foretaste, forewarning; advertiser, announcer, blazoner, crier, proclaimer; courier, messenger, runner; augury, auspice, boding, foreboding, foreshadowing, omen, portent, prefiguring, presage; mark, sign, symptom; bellwether

2

something belonging to an earlier time from which something else was later developed <a precursor of the modern eggplant>

Synonyms antecedent, archetype, daddy, foregoer, forerunner, granddaddy (also grandaddy), precursor, predecessor, prototype

Related Words model, original; originator, sire; father, mother

Near Antonyms by-product, derivative, offshoot, outgrowth, spin-off; daughter, son

Antonyms descendant (also descendent)