the.com/foreword

means A short introductory section at the front of a book, typically written by someone other than the author to lend credibility or context.

from A transparent compound of "fore-" (before, in front of — the same Old English fore that gives us forecast and forehead) and "word." It was coined in the 19th century as a deliberately English-rooted alternative to the Latin-derived "preface" (literally "spoken before"). The two halves do exactly what they say: the words that come before the words. Note the spelling trap — it's "foreword," not "forward," a confusion that has tripped up writers ever since the term arrived.