By THE NEW YORK TIMES. Twenty-seventh President of the United States and its tenth Chief Justice, William Howard Taft was the only man in the history of the country to become the head of both the Executive and Judicial Departments of the Federal Government.
Adj. 1. preceding-existing or coming before. antecedent-preceding in time or order. succeeding-coming after or following. previous-Preceding means occurring immediately before the time of the utterance, while previous means occurring at some time before the utterance..
2. One that precedes another; a forerunner or predecessor: The new principal's precursor was an eminent educator. 3. A biochemical substance, such as an intermediate compound in a chain of enzymatic reactions, from which a more stable or definitive product is formed: a precursor of insulin.recursor. n. 1. a person or thing that precedes and shows or announces someone or something to come; harbinger. 2. a predecessor or forerunner. 3. (Chemistry) a chemical substance that gives rise to another more important substance.