How to correctly mark up a headline "kicker

Joschi Kuphal and some of his contacts discuss the optimal HTML semantics for a “kicker” (the little pre-heading on top of a headline, sometimes also called “eyebrow”; “Dachzeile” in German) from an accessibility perspective. Some very interesting nuggets and perspectives…

I have included the “kicker” in simple <span> tags as part of the headline before, but of the solutions discussed in the thread, I almost prefer the idea that the “kicker” (cf. MerriamWebster) is actually something that semantically belongs below the headline and could the be lifted only visually.

Addition, 2022-11-04: The following article suggests a standards-compliant way of achieving this: