Forerunner /(?)/

Fore·run·ner

Forerunner

n.
  1. A messenger sent before to give notice of the approach of others; a harbinger; a sign foreshowing something; a prognostic; as, the forerunner of a fever.
    Whither the forerunner in for us entered, even Jesus.
    — Heb. vi. 20.
    My elder brothers, my forerunners, came.
  2. A predecessor; an ancestor. [Obs.]
  3. A piece of rag terminating the log line. (Naut.)