SG Heritage Dictionary

Prolegomena [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

plural [Gr. to speak.] Preliminary observations; introductory remarks or discourses prefixed to a book or treatise.

Prolegomena [Plural] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Prolegomenary [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Of the nature of a prolegomenon; preliminary; introductory; prefatory.

Precursor Roget’s Thesaurus §64

N. precursor, antecedent, precedent, predecessor, forerunner, vancourier, avant-coureur, pioneer, prodrome|, prodromos, prodromus, outrider, leader, bellwether, herald, harbinger, foreboding, dawn, avant-courier, avant-garde, bellmare, forelooper, foreloper, stalking-horse, voorlooper, voortrekker, prelude, preamble, preface, prologue, foreword, avant-propos, protasis, proemium, prolusion, proem, prolepsis, prolegomena, prefix, introduction, heading, frontispiece, groundwork, preparation, overture, exordium, symphony, premises, prefigurement, omen

Phr. "a precedent embalms a principle"