praecursor

Forms

praecursor m (genitive praecursōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin praecurrō (“to run ahead”) + -tor.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero (81–43 BC) is the first to use it, in a transferred sense, of a man's agent who went ahead of him in every false charge.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

It meant someone who runs on ahead: in Livy a soldier of the advance guard,^[2][4] and in Pliny's Panegyric a runner going before a great man.^[2][4] The TLL finds it only in single passages of Cicero, Livy and Pliny, and more often from Tertullian and the Old Latin Bible on.^[5]

Christian writers made it the title of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, as in Augustine,^[4][6] and Lactantius uses it of one who goes before on the same path.^[4] Medieval British Latin kept the military senses, a mounted scout and an advance force.^[6] English borrowed it in the early 15th century as precursor.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an agent sent ahead of a man.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the advance guard of the Roman army.^[2][3]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine calls John the Baptist the forerunner of Christ.^[4][3]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as precursor.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A forerunner, one who runs on ahead.^[2][4]
2. (military) A member of the advance guard.^[2][4]
3. (transferred) A scout or spy.^[4][8]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist.^[4][6]

Word family

• praecursōrius

Related words

• praecurrō
• praecursātor
• praecursiō
• English precursor

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn