Fronter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who serves as the public face or figurehead for a group or organization ; a member of a plural system who is currently in control of the shared body
2. Someone who stands in front to represent others publicly ; within a multiple-identity system, the one identity presently active and speaking through the body
3. A figurehead who fronts a cause or company for others ; in plural systems, the particular member who is presently in charge of the body

Etymology: "Fronter" is the comparative of "front", so it means "more front" in the sense of nearer the front, or more forward. The base word traces back to Latin "frōns", "frontem", meaning "forehead", which is also the source of the English word "frons", a doublet of "front" that English kept as a technical anatomical and botanical term for the forehead or front part of a structure. The path to English ran through Old French "front", which passed the Latin sense of forehead into the wider notion of the face or front of something. Middle English then borrowed it as "front", "frunt", or "frount", and from there the word came to mean the leading part of an army, a building, or a line of advance. "Fronter" therefore carries that spatial sense of forward position, comparing things by how far forward they stand.

Synonyms: presenter, host, front man