foretide

Definitions

1. An early tide (tidal surge).
   figuratively, rare
2. A prior or previous period of time.
   rare

Examples

“He and the other leaders directed the crowds into the mass meeting at St. James Baptist Church, which was swamped long before nightfall. The movement was becoming a tempest. A foretide of one event churned into the backwash of others […]”

“Older farmers coming from the East in the foretide of settlement, shook their heads dubiously at the idea of cropping the same land⟳ year after year to the one crop, corn.”

CEFR level