What's the difference between harbinger and precursor?

Harbinger


Definition:

  • (n.) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when traveling, to provide and prepare lodgings.
  • (n.) A forerunner; a precursor; a messenger.
  • (v. t.) To usher in; to be a harbinger of.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, sepsis-associated CNS dysfunction appears to be as important a harbinger of excess mortality as renal or pulmonary dysfunction in septic patients.
  • (2) A strong hi-tech presence was a harbinger of better health; a dependence on older manufacturing industries was associated with poorer health.
  • (3) "May the supreme court’s move be a harbinger of other, more responsible, decisions to come."
  • (4) It's not obvious what this harbinger of doom is supposed to be.
  • (5) Acquired isolated oculomotor palsies in some cases are not necessarily a harbinger of serious disease.
  • (6) Lastly, the occurrence of coagulase-negative staphylococcal peritonitis is a harbinger of future episodes of peritonitis caused by a variety of organisms.
  • (7) In the former illness, reduced blink rate signifies a worsening of the illness and a significant increase in blink rate in patients treated with dopamine agonist may be a harbinger of agonist-induced dyskinesia.
  • (8) We feel this is a harbinger of what could come, for what it indicates in terms of what the future holds."
  • (9) Allende's election three years before at the head of a socialist-communist coalition had a significance far beyond Chile itself, being widely seen as the harbinger of similar projects in countries such as France and Italy, as well as the beginning of a "second Cuba" in Latin America itself.
  • (10) Isis sees itself as a harbinger of the end of times.
  • (11) EL: The first psychiatrist I saw subscribed very much to the same view as my friend and the GP – that my voice (and bear in mind, it's still only a single voice at this time) was a sinister harbinger of something much more serious.
  • (12) It presents to the anesthesiologist the immediate problem of airway management but it also must be recognized by the physician as a harbinger of malignant hyperthermia.
  • (13) "Apple's new Siri Assistant, unique to the new 4S, is a powerful harbinger of the future use of mobile devices – not just the power of voice but, more importantly, the ability to contextualise a statement or request.
  • (14) Proteinuria is the clinical hallmark of diabetic nephropathy and the harbinger of progressive renal disease.
  • (15) In the depressed elderly, characteristic EEG changes occur that may help distinguish major depression from pseudodementia; however, it should be considered that pseudodementia may be a harbinger of primary dementia.
  • (16) Mesangial cell proliferation, which is a harbinger of glomerulosclerosis, occurs in both immune and nonimmune glomerulopathies.
  • (17) BP BP was the harbinger of privatisations when James Callaghan's Labour government parcelled off a chunk of the oil giant in the 1970s.
  • (18) Hezbollah's lead role in the battle for Qusair is widely seen as a harbinger of a broader role for the Lebanese Shia militia in Syria, having instilled momentum into a regime military that had struggled to gain ground in many parts of the country since last summer.
  • (19) Significant spontaneous gross hematuria, gastrointestinal bleeding or epistaxis appear to represent harbingers of intracranial hemorrhage and constitute indications for emergency splenectomy.
  • (20) "Perhaps the way the job is defined needs to change, and this is the harbinger of bigger changes to come."

Precursor


Definition:

  • (n.) One who, or that which, precedes an event, and indicates its approach; a forerunner; a harbinger.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) After 4 to 6 hours of recirculation, accumulation of vasoactive amine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, its major metabolite, 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid, and its precursor amino acid, tryptophan were detected.
  • (2) Compound Z has the properties expected of an oxidized MPT precursor.
  • (3) Moreover in MIT-1, the size of the novel polypeptide was not that predicted of the precursor (44.9 kDa) but was about 39 kDa, the same size as the authentic GS gamma polypeptide in CYT-4.
  • (4) It is possible that the elements provide common precursor proteins that reach the secretory intermediate lobe cells through their dendritic branches.
  • (5) The present in vitro studies show that it is found as beta-endorphin in bovine pituitary slices incubated with radioactive amino acid precursor [35S]methionine.
  • (6) Our study suggests that a major part of the renal antimineralocorticoid activity of spironolactone may be attributable to minor sulfur-containing metabolites or their precursors having a high renal clearance that affords access to their site of activity via the renal tubular fluid.
  • (7) When an expression vector containing plasminogen cDNA is transfected into baby hamster kidney cells, the number of drug-resistant colonies as well as the levels of plasminogen secreted by those colonies is lower than observed in similar transfections of other protease precursor genes.
  • (8) These series were prepared by oxidation of the new hydroquinone precursors.
  • (9) Administration of one of the precursors of noradrenaline l-DOPA not only prevented the decrease in tissue noradrenaline content in myocardium, but restored completely its reserves, exhausted by electrostimulation of the aortic arch.
  • (10) By 3 d in the chick embryo, the first neurons detected by antibodies to Ng-CAM are located in the ventral neural tube; these precursors of motor neurons emit well-stained fibers to the periphery.
  • (11) From this proliferating layer, precursor cells migrate outwards to reach the developing neostriatum in a sequential fashion according to two gradients of histogenesis.
  • (12) If this is what 70s stoners were laughing at, it feels like they’ve already become acquiescent, passive parts of media-relayed consumer society; precursors of the cathode-ray-frazzled pop-culture exegetists of Tarantino and Kevin Smith in the 90s.
  • (13) Fiber may have a protective role because of its influence on estrogen metabolism and excretion or because of the endocrine effects of the lignans, a family of compounds formed in the intestine from fiber-associated precursors.
  • (14) Furthermore it is this small compartment that is preferentially radioactively labelled during short-term incubations with radioactively labelled precursors.
  • (15) One important consequence of the conservative mode of replication is that cellular enzymes never gain access to the reovirus genome but only to its ssRNA precursors.
  • (16) The results from rabbit experiments suggest that the 12S protein, probably represents a precursor of TG.
  • (17) In vitro import assays indicate that ATP12 protein is synthesized as a precursor approximately 3 kDa larger than the mature protein.
  • (18) Tritium-labeled ribonucleic acid precursors, including cytidine, uridine, and orotic acid, were injected into rats with dated pregnancies (14 to 21 days) and virgin rats.
  • (19) Pulse-chase experiments showed that the ornithine transcarbamylase precursor and the thiolase traveled from the cytosol to the mitochondria with half-lives of less than 5 min, whereas the three fusion proteins traveled with half-lives of 10-15 min.
  • (20) The results show that centrally administered serotonin, the serotonin precursor, 5-hydroxytryptophan administered with clorgyline, a selective MAO A inhibitor, quipazine, a serotonin receptor agonist, and fluoxetine, a selective inhibitor of neuronal re-uptake of serotonin, attenuated all paradigms of FIA and apomorphine induced potentiation of FIA.