Etymologically
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exaggeration

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exaggerātiō (“elevation, exaltation”),[2][3][4][5] a noun of action from exaggerō (“to heighten, amplify, magnify; to heap up”),[3][2][6] formed from intensive ex- and aggerō (“to heap up”),[2][7][3] from agger (“heap”),[2][7][3] which comes from a verb formed from ad- (“to, toward”) and gerō (“to carry”).[3][6][7] Barnhart allows that it may instead have been formed from English exaggerate + -ion.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of magnifying something unduly in words, or an exaggerated statement: 1565, in John Jewel's Replie to Harding.[2][6] Etymonline dates the noun to the 1560s.[3]

Semantic evolution

Unlike the verb exaggerate, which first meant "to pile up" in English,[8][3] the noun appears first in the sense of overstatement.[2] The literal sense, heaping or piling up, for example of sand or silt by the sea, is recorded later, in Matthew Hale (before 1676), and is now obsolete;[2] Johnson (1755) gave it as his first sense, with Hale's quotation, before "hyperbolical amplification".[9] From 1592 to 1720 the word could also mean dwelling on the greatness of a good or bad quality or act.[2] In the 17th century it was used for the aggravation of a condition (1661),[2] and since 1728 it has been used in painting and sculpture for a heightened representation of a subject.[2]

Timeline

  • 1565 – overstatement; an exaggerated statement.[2][6]
  • 1592 – emphasis on the greatness of a quality or act (obsolete by 1720).[2]
  • 1661 – aggravation of a condition.[2]
  • before 1676 – heaping or piling up (obsolete).[2]
  • 1728 – in art, a heightened representation of a subject.[2]
  • 1841 – an exaggerated copy.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of exaggerating; overstatement beyond the bounds of truth: His account of the storm was full of exaggeration.[4][2][5]
  2. An exaggerated statement or representation: To call it a mansion is an exaggeration.[4][5]
  3. (obsolete) The heaping or piling up of something, such as sand or silt.[2][9]

Word family

  • nonexaggeration
  • overexaggeration

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.