Aggrievance

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feeling of being wronged or treated unjustly, or the act of causing such resentment through unfair or offensive treatment
2. A condition characterized by a sense of being wronged or mistreated, often resulting in emotional distress and a call for redress against perceived injustices
3. A complaint expressing dissatisfaction due to perceived unfair treatment or injustice, often leading to a request for remedy or acknowledgement of the wrong suffered

Etymology: "Aggrieve" is the older of the two verbs, and it started out meaning to make something heavier. It comes through Old French "agrever" from Latin "aggravare," which combined "ad-" (toward) with "gravis" (heavy). That same Latin root gave English "aggravate," so the two verbs are close relatives. Over time, "aggrieve" shifted from the sense of weighing down to the sense of weighing down on someone's spirit, which is where the modern meaning of injustice and resentment comes from. "Aggrievance" adds the English suffix "-ance," which turns a verb into a noun for a state or act, so it names both the sore feeling of being wronged and the unfair treatment that causes it. It is much less common than "grievance," which descends from the Anglo-French "grevance," a related noun built on the same Latin root.

Synonyms: complaint, injustice, wrong

Antonyms: contentment, satisfaction