advertise

Etymology

From Middle English advertisen, from Anglo-Norman advertir (“to inform”), avertir, Middle French advertir, avertir (“to warn, give notice to”), with the ending assimilated to -ise, -ize and probably influenced by the noun advertisement. Compare also advert.

verb

1. (transitive) To give (especially public) notice of (something); to announce publicly.
2. (intransitive) To provide information about a person or goods and services to influence others.
   For personal needs, advertise on the internet or in a local newspaper.
3. (transitive) To provide public information about (a product, service etc.) in order to attract public awareness and increase sales.
   Over the air, they advertise their product on drive-time radio talk shows and TV news shows.
4. (transitive, now rare) To notify (someone) of something; to call someone's attention to something.
   […] I am daily advertiſed by ſeveral friends and correſpondents from Oxford, that I have omitted many particulars, which it is proper to animadvert upon, in order to compleat the Secret Hiſtory of that place; and I have therefore, in compliance with their requeſt, reſolved to reſume this work, and continue to publiſh ſome part of it every Act-Term, till the whole is finiſhed, and the ſubject fully exhauſted: […] 1726, Terræ Filius [pseudonym; Nicholas Amherst], “[The Dedication]”, in Terræ-Filius: Or, the Secret History of the University of Oxford; in Several Essays. To which are Added, Remarks upon a Late Book, Entitled, University Education, by R. Newton, D.D. Principal of Hart-Hall. In Two Volumes, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Printed for R. Francklin, under Tom's Coffee-House, in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden, →OCLC, page xi
5. (card games) In gin rummy, to discard a card of one's preferred suit so as to mislead the opponent into thinking you do not want it.
   The safest time to answer a possible advertisement is when you have no indication as to what suit your opponent wants. Then even if he has advertised, the odds are that your answer is not the card he is looking for. 1947, On Gin Rummy: An All-American Roundup, page 121