Ballooned

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /bəˈluːnd/

Definitions

1. To swell or grow rapidly in size or volume, often by filling with air or gas ; to rise sharply in quantity or extent, often referring to numbers or costs
2. To enlarge quickly and significantly in physical dimensions ; to escalate suddenly in magnitude, describing a sudden surge in total
3. To inflate or become much larger unexpectedly ; to experience a rapid increase, especially referring to amounts or figures

Etymology: The past tense "ballooned" is simply "balloon" with the regular -ed ending, so its story is the story of the noun. The most surprising thing about that noun is that the first balloons were not the gas-filled bags of the sky. In the 1590s, "balloon" named a game played with a large, inflated leather ball, borrowed from Italian "pallone" ("large ball"), itself built on "palla" ("ball"). The Italian words trace back to a Germanic word for ball, which in turn goes to a root meaning "to blow, swell, inflate." That root explains the verb's meaning. A thing that is blown up swells, so "to balloon" came to mean swelling or ballooning outward, and then, figuratively, growing rapidly and unexpectedly in size or number, as with costs or debts. The aircraft sense of the noun, the hot-air or gas bag that rises into the sky, came much later, and it is that image of a bag swelling with air that sits behind the verb's modern use for figures.

Synonyms: expanded, swelled, inflated, enlarged, increased

Antonyms: deflated, contracted, shrunk, diminished, reduced