Other forms: vanguards
The vanguard is the leading part of a movement or an army. In the vanguard, the vanguard of the campaign, a vanguard party.
Militarily it is the force that goes first and finds the enemy. Figuratively it means the leading edge of a change, and it is nearly always in the phrase in the vanguard of. Avant-garde is the same French phrase borrowed a second time.
1nounvanguardThe leading part of a movement or an army.
“The city was in the vanguard of the push for cleaner buses.”
vanguard is a leading part.
Old French avant-garde means the guard in front. Avant-garde is the same word borrowed again later.
Old French
avangarde,avant-garde,avantgarde
Middle English
vandgard,vaunte garde,vaunt garde,wantgard
English, today
vanguard
Built from
From Middle English vandgard,vaunte garde,vaunt garde,wantgard, from advaunte-garde, avauntgard with aphesis, from Old French avangarde,avant-garde,avantgarde, from avant (“before; in front”) + garde (“guard”). a doublet of avant-garde and vaward.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA