Inflated

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈfleɪtɪd/

Definitions

1. Marked by an artificial increase in bulk or value
2. Denoting objects filled with air or gas to become larger or more buoyant
3. Having been made to appear bigger or more significant than natural through exaggeration or added material ; containing air or gas that increases size or buoyancy

Etymology: The word "inflated" is the past form of "inflate", which comes from Latin "īnflāre", meaning "to blow into" or "to blow up". Its root is "flāre", "to blow", the same root behind "flatus" (a breath or puff of air), which is why blowing up a balloon and drawing in a breath share a single ancestry. English took the verb from the Latin past participle "īnflātus", so the Latin sense of physically filling something with breath stayed at the core of the English word. The English word also has a twin that took a different path. "Inblow" entered English from the same Latin source but was kept as a separate word, making the pair a doublet: two forms of one ancestor that reached English at different times and carried slightly different shapes. "Inflate" kept its literal sense of filling with air, and the abstract senses of growing larger or rising in price or value developed from that physical image of swelling.

Synonyms: puffed, expanded, swollen, distended, augmented

Antonyms: deflated, collapsed, reduced, diminished, shrunk