pioneer vs predecessor

pioneer

noun
  • A person or other entity who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress. 

  • A member of a children’s organization operated by the Communist Party, typically in the second of three stages toward becoming an member of the Party itself. 

  • One who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow. 

  • Some people will consider their national heroes to be pioneers of civilization. 

  • A member of any of several European organizations advocating abstinence from alcohol. 

verb
  • To be the first to do or achieve (something), preparing the way for others to follow. 

predecessor

noun
  • One who precedes; one who has preceded another in any state, position, office, etc.; one whom another follows or comes after, in any office or position. 

  • A model or type of machinery or device which precedes the current (or later) one. Usually used to describe an earlier, outdated model. 

  • A vertex having a directed path to another vertex 

How often have the words pioneer and predecessor occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )