Boldened

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Made daring, confident, or strong ; given force or emphasis in appearance, speech, or style ; rendered visually prominent, often through thicker lines or darker lettering
2. Endowed with noticeable courage or assertiveness ; made distinct or eye-catching by means of accentuation ; presented in a visually enhanced form such as heavy or dark text
3. Instilled with bravery or marked determination ; accentuated for prominence in expression or manner ; emphasized in written form by using thicker or darker type

Etymology: Bold itself goes back to Old English "beald," meaning brave or daring, and it reached English with that sense intact. The verb "bolden" is simpler still: it is built from "bold" plus the suffix "-en," the same ending found in verbs like "widen" and "harden." Adding "-en" to an adjective turns it into a verb meaning to make or become that quality, so "bolden" means to make bold, and "boldened" is its past tense and past participle. The suffix has a long ancestry. It descends from an old Germanic verb-forming ending that appears across the family of Germanic languages, passing through Old English "-nian" and Middle English "-en" before settling into the form used today. The word thus shows how English has long been able to turn adjectives into verbs with a single added syllable.

Synonyms: emphasized, highlighted, accentuated, stressed

Antonyms: diminished, reduced, weakened