Other forms: aggravated, aggravating, aggravates
To aggravate is to make something worse, or to annoy somebody. Aggravate the injury, don't aggravate him, aggravated by the delay.
Purists say only the first sense is correct and that the annoyance sense is a mistake, but that sense is four centuries old and is not going anywhere. In law, an aggravated offence is a more serious version of a basic one and carries a longer sentence.
1verbaggravateTo make something worse, or to annoy somebody.
“The new tax will only aggravate the problems facing small shops.”
aggravate is a worsening.
Latin aggravare means to make heavier — ad plus gravis, heavy. Grave and gravity are relatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷreh₂-
Latin
aggravātus
English, today
aggravate
Built from
The adjective is 1471 in Middle English, the verb in 1530; from Latin aggravātus, perfect passive participle of aggravō (“to add to the weight of, make worse, oppress, annoy”) (see -ate and -ate), from ad- (“to”) + gravō (“to make heavy”), from gravis (“heavy”) + -ō. See grave and compare aggrieve and aggrege. Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English. by surface analysis, ag- + grave + -ate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA