precursor means that which precurses: a forerunner, predecessor, or indicator of approaching events. It carries an Arena rating of 1496, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, precursor ranks #1,877 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #5,126 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #5,149 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #7,138 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
precursor is pronounced /pɹɪˈkɜː.sə/.
Why “precursor” is a great word
A person or thing that comes before and indicates or prepares the way for a later, more significant event or development. From Middle English *precursour*, from Middle French *precurseur*, from Latin *praecursor* ("forerunner, precursor"), from *praecurrere* ("to run before"), from *prae-" ("before") + *currere* ("to run"). First attested in the late 14th century. Unlike a "harbinger," which announces an imminent arrival with theatrical finality, or a "progenitor," which claims a direct bloodline of ancestry, a precursor is a subtler, more provisional figure. It is the crude, hand-cranked kinetoscope flickering before cinema was born, the forgotten hypothesis containing the seed of a revolution, or the chill in the air that has forsaken autumn but is not yet winter—the humble and often anonymous footfall that, by its mere presence, announces a path is being formed.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English precursour, from Middle French precurseur or its etymon Latin praecursor (“forerunner”). By surface analysis, precurse + -or.
noun
- That which precurses: a forerunner, predecessor, or indicator of approaching events.
- One of the compounds that participates in the chemical reaction that produces another compound.
adj
- Caused by the following symbol.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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