Other forms: bolder, boldest
Bold means unafraid of risk or attention. A bold decision, a bold move, bold colours.
Of an action it means brave and slightly reckless; of colours and design it means strong and unhesitating. In typography, bold is the heavy weight of a typeface — put it in bold. Bold as brass means brazenly confident. Note make so bold, an old formal politeness meaning to presume; and that bold in Irish English also means naughty, said of a child, which surprises English speakers elsewhere.
1adjectiveboldUnafraid of risk or attention.
“It was a bold decision and it very nearly worked.”
2adjectivestrongStrong and clear, of colour or design.
“The bold colours date the whole room to about 1972.”
3adjectiveprintedPrinted in a heavy typeface.
“Put the headings in bold and nothing else.”
bold is a quality of confidence.
Also accepted in games: daring
Old English bald meant brave, from a Germanic root meaning strong. It survives in the name Baldwin, meaning bold friend, and in the German bald, which drifted to mean soon — from the idea of being quick to act.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰel-
Proto-Germanic
*balþaz — strong, bold
Proto-West Germanic
*balþ
Old English
bald
Middle English
bold
English, today
bold
Built from
From Middle English bold, bolde, bald, beald, from Old English bald, beald (“bold, brave, confident, strong, of good courage, presumptuous, impudent”), from Proto-West Germanic balþ, from Proto-Germanic balþaz (“strong, bold”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰel-, bʰlē- (“to bloat, swell, bubble”). Cognate with Dutch boud (“bold, courageous, fearless”), Middle High German balt (“bold”) (whence German bald (“soon”)), Swedish båld (“bold, dauntless”). Perhaps related to Albanian ballë (“forehead”) and Old Prussian balo (“forehead”). Compare typologically Italian affrontare (“to face, to deal with”), sfrontato (“bold, daring, insolent”), both from Latin frons (“forehead”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA