Faced something bravely or served as the public face of something; past tense of front.
From Old English 'front' (forehead, front part), from Latin 'frons'. As a verb, it developed meanings of 'to face' or 'to be in front', with 'fronted' as the past tense.
In slang, 'fronted' has a completely different meaning—it can mean someone pretended to be something they're not, showing how verbs can evolve sneaky new meanings that make the word do double-duty in different groups of people.
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