Heralded

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Announced widely and with distinction, indicating something important is expected to follow
2. Made a notable public announcement to signal the arrival or occurrence of something significant
3. Declared or communicated openly to draw attention to what is about to happen

Etymology: The verb comes from a figure who once carried messages in war. A herald was an official who announced news and proclaimed decrees on behalf of a ruler, and the word traces back to a Frankish compound, "heriwald", built from elements meaning "army" and "to be strong" or "to rule." That same pair of elements gave us the personal names Harold and Harald, so "herald" is a doublet of those names. Its near mirror image is "Walter," which reverses the order of the same two parts. The word passed into English through Old French "heraut" and its Anglo-Norman form, arriving in Middle English as "herauld" and "heraud" before settling into its modern spelling. For centuries the sense stayed concrete: a herald was a person in a tabard who read out proclamations at tournaments and courts. The shift to a verb meaning to announce something widely, and to signal that something important is coming, grew out of that role. To be heralded is to be announced in the way a royal messenger once heralded an arrival.

Synonyms: announced, proclaimed, declared, advertised, publicized

Antonyms: concealed, suppressed, hidden, ignored, overlooked