Aggravates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To worsen a problem or situation, increasing its severity ; to cause irritation or annoyance to a person, leading to discomfort or displeasure
2. To intensify the seriousness of an issue or condition ; to provoke feelings of vexation or frustration in someone
3. To add to the difficulty or harm of a circumstance ; to disturb or upset someone by causing persistent bother

Etymology: The verb "aggravate" was first recorded in English in 1530, while the adjective appeared earlier, around 1471. Its literal sense is strikingly physical: it comes from Latin "aggravāre", meaning to add weight to something, from "ad" ("to") and "gravis" ("heavy"). So the Roman original was about loading a burden onto something, and the sense of making a bad situation worse grows naturally from that image of extra weight. The word's older meaning was not gentle. Latin "aggravō" could mean to oppress or to make something harder to bear, and the English verb carried that sense of burdening someone until they suffer. The modern sense of irritating or provoking a person developed later, when "aggravate" came to mean to annoy or vex, which is the idea of pressing on someone's nerves until they become upset. The word is closely related to "grave", meaning serious or heavy, which descends from the same Latin "gravis". Its relative "aggrieve" follows a similar pattern of adding a burden to a person, though it has taken a different path in English.

Synonyms: intensifies, exacerbates, irritates, annoys, provokes

Antonyms: alleviates, ameliorates, calms