Forms: 4–6 forgoer, (4 forgoere, 5 goar, 6 foregoere). 5– foregoer. [f. FORE- pref. + GOER.]
† 1. A messenger sent before, a forerunner, a harbinger; spec. a purveyor. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 13208 (Trin.).
| To helle bifore crist he [Ion] ferd | |
| As he dud in to þis werd | |
| Þerfore is he called forgoer. |
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 198.
| Ac gile was forgoere · to gyen al the puple, | |
| For to wisse hem the weye · and with Mede a-byde. |
1502. Caxton’s Chron. Eng., kvj b/1. He was … The forgooer of Antecryst, the fulfyller of heresye.
1580. Ord. of Prayer, in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847), 568. He sent Hornets and wild Beasts, as foregoers of his host, into the land of Canaan, before he rooted out the inhabiters thereof.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 216.
| O Mercurie, foregoer to the euening; | |
| O heauenly huntresse of the sauage mountaines; | |
| O louely star, entitled of the morning,— | |
| While that my voyce doth fill these wofull vallies. |
1601. F. Tate, Househ. Ord. Edw. II., § 90 (1876), 53. Their shalbe a foregoer in the kinges houshold.
1662. Phillips, Foregoers, Purveyours going before the King or Queen in progresse.
1745. Blomefield, Norf., II. 605. There was one always at each [Leper] House called the Foregoer, who used to beg daily for them.
2. One who or that which goes in front or ‘leads the way’; a leader; hence, an example, pattern.
1382. Wyclif, Josh. iii. 3. Whanne ȝe seen the ark of the boond of pees of the Lord oure God … folwe ȝe the forgoers.
1485. Caxton, St. Wenefr., 10. They made her in alle thynges that apperteyne to theyr helthe a forgoar and ensample to them.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par., 1 Tim. ii. 11. It is conuenient for them [woman] … to be folowers, and not forgoers.
1596. Davies, Orchestra, 58.
| In the chiefe angle flyes the watchfull guide, | |
| And all the followers their [Cranes’] heads doe lay | |
| On their forgoers backs, on eyther side. |
1658. Baxter, Saving Faith, xii. 85. The promised Glory, and the future blessings that are its necessary Foregoers.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., II. i. Each [reaper] casting leftwards his rich clearance on his foregoer’s double track.
3. One that has gone before; a predecessor.
1558. Grimalde, Cicero’s Offices, II. (1558), 102. He … in knowledge clerely exceded all his foregoers.
1602. Carew, Cornwall (1769), 68. For the Church-ale, two young men of the parish are yerely chosen by their last foregoers, to be Wardens, who deuiding the task, make collection among the parishioners, of whatsoeuer prouision it pleaseth them voluntarily to bestow.
1866. Dixon, Spiritual Wives, II. xi. 90. He was of Scottish descent; but his foregoers had been settled in Massachusetts since the days of the Mayflower.
1877. Morley, Crit. Misc., Ser. II. 348. The order in which each state of society has followed its foregoer, according to great and changeless laws ‘embracing all things and all times.’
4. Naut. = FOREGANGER 2 a.
1694. Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 161. Before this hollow part, the Fore-goer is fasten’d or ty’d.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
1892. Daily News, 8 June, 5/3. We quickly bent on the line to the foregoer, clapped the harpoon into the gun.
