foregroup

plural foregroups

1. A previous or prior grouping or assemblage.

   The most striking personage in the foregroup of visitors was one who had taken off his hat and disclosed a forehead of supernatural height, though of extreme narrowness, reminding one somewhat of the chimney of a parafiin lamp; […]

   1897, Edward Jenkins, Pantalas and what They Did with Him

2. A group positioned in the fore or out front.

   Sometimes the former were composed into a foregroup while the latter were consigned to the background; at other times the holy people were placed in a raised or semi-celestial station, the evil ones were "terrestrialized" in a lower station.

   1987, Jewish quarterly review