precursor
prih-KUR-sernounMeaning something that came earlier and led the way to a later thing
Memory hook PRE + CURSOR (runner): the FORERUNNER. Long before cars, horse-drawn carts rumbled down the roads; the cart ran ahead of the car in history. It was a precursor.
The abacus was a precursor of the calculator.
In context Long before the first airplane, the glider was its precursor, proving that a person could ride the air on fixed wings.
Similar forerunner, predecessor, antecedent, harbinger
Opposite successor, descendant
From Latin praecursor, “forerunner”: prae- (before) + currere (to run).