"forerunners" in the noun sense
1. precursor, forerunner
a person who goes before or announces the coming of another
2. harbinger, forerunner, predecessor, herald, precursor
something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone
3. antecedent, forerunner
anything that precedes something similar in time
"phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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