An officer having the special duty of making royal or state proclamations, and of bearing ceremonial messages between princes or sovereign powers.

A fore-goer, harbinger, messenger, or courier.

A harbinger, messenger. Obsolete. Cf. forayer, n. 2.

One who or that which goes before. a fore-runner, a harbinger.

One who precedes or arrives before another, esp. a higher dignitary or personage; a precursor. Also transferred. Cf. harbinger, n. 3.

One that goes before and announces the approach of some one; a forerunner. Mostly in transferred and figurative senses, and in literary language.

One who runs or rides before; a herald; esp. (in 17th cent.) in plural the scouts, skirmishers, or advance-guard of an army.

†(a) a harbinger, an usher (obsolete); (b) that which goes before or precedes something; a precursor.