Etymologically
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exaggero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsaɡ.ɡɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzad.d͡ʒe.ro][1]

Forms

exaggerō (present infinitive exaggerāre, perfect active exaggerāvī, supine exaggerātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + aggerō (“to heap up”).[2][1][3] The OLD refers it to aggerō “to carry to”, a compound of ad- and gerō, whereas Etymonline takes ⟨aggerāre⟩ “to heap up” from agger (“heap”).[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is Varro,[2][5] who explains aggeres as what was heaped up quo moenitius esset, “so that it might be better fortified”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to heap or pile up, as of mounds of earth in Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder, and to fill up or pile with, as of filling the sea with earth in the elder Seneca or an aviary with straw in Columella.[2][6][7] From piling up wealth, as in Cicero and Phaedrus, it passed to magnifying: Cicero has someone overrate his tiny share, his sextula, and a mind virtutibus exaggeratus, “raised high by its virtues”.[2][8] The commonest use is rhetorical, to amplify or heighten in speech, as in Cicero's ad exaggerandam et amplificandam orationem and in Quintilian.[2][6] Tertullian uses it for surpassing, and Cyprian for making anger worse.[7] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to grow worse, increase, exaggerate.[9] English took it as exaggerate in the 1530s, first in the sense to pile up, accumulate.[4]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of piling up earthworks.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of amassing wealth, overrating and rhetorical amplification.[2][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of heightening a grievance in a speech.[2][5]
  • 1530s – Borrowed into English as exaggerate.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To heap or pile up; to build by piling up.[2][6]
  2. To pile up wealth; to accumulate.[2][8]
  3. To fill up or pile with; figuratively, to raise up.[2][8]
  4. To make or represent as greater, magnify.[2][8]
  5. In speech or writing, to amplify, heighten, exaggerate.[2][6]
  6. (Late Latin) To make worse, exacerbate.[7][9]

Word family

  • exaggerātiō
  • exaggerator
  • exaggeranter

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson