Heroic means showing very great courage. A heroic rescue, heroic efforts, heroic in defeat.
It is also used of an effort that was enormous whether or not it succeeded: heroic efforts to save the building. In medicine, heroic treatment means an extreme intervention attempted when nothing else is left. Note heroics, the plural, which is faintly critical and means showy bravery — no heroics, please; and that the feminine heroine is used of a person while heroic covers everybody.
1adjectiveheroicShowing very great courage.
“The firefighter's heroic rescue of a child from the burning house made the front page.”
synonyms: courageous, valiant
2adjectiveenormousEnormous in scale of effort.
“Heroic efforts were made to save a building nobody wanted.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
heroic is a quality of courage.
Greek heros meant a demigod or a warrior of the age of legend. Latin took it as heros, and English took the adjective through French — so calling an act heroic compares it to something out of Homer.
Latin
hērōicus
Middle French
heroïque
English, today
heroic
Partly from Middle French heroïque and partly from Latin hērōicus. by surface analysis, hero + -ic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA