Aggravable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being worsened or intensified in nature
2. Susceptible to becoming increasingly severe or serious
3. Able to have its severity or intensity increased by external factors

Etymology: "Aggravable" is built from the English "aggravate" plus the suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being" or "susceptible to." The stem comes from Latin "aggravō," which literally meant "weigh down," combining "ad-" (toward) with "gravis" (heavy). The Latin verb's sense of loading something down gave English the figurative idea of a burden making a situation worse. The "-able" ending is the more recent addition, and it is what makes this word unusual: it turns an action into a quality a thing can possess. Something aggravable is one that tends to grow more severe under pressure, such as a minor injury or a dispute. The word is a fairly technical formation, and most readers will meet "aggravate" far more often than its adjectival cousin.

Synonyms: exasperable, irritatable

Antonyms: mollifiable, pacifiable