Other forms: upgraded, upgrades, upgrading
An upgrade is a move to a better class of seat or service. The unexpected wave towards the front of the plane.
Travel is where most people meet the word, and being upgraded is one of life's small joys. Technology took it over completely, so software upgrades, hardware upgrades and upgrading your phone are now the commonest uses of all. As a verb it works both ways, since you upgrade a system and a system gets upgraded. Its opposite, downgrade, appears mainly in credit ratings and in weather warnings that are being reduced.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰradʰ-
Proto-Italic
*graðus
Latin
gradus — a step, pace, degree
Middle French
grade — a grade, degree
English
grade
English, today
upgrade
Built from
From up- + grade. grade Borrowed from Middle French grade (“a grade, degree”), from Latin gradus (“a step, pace, degree”), from Proto-Italic graðus, from Proto-Indo-European gʰradʰ-, gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”). a doublet of gradus. Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌹𐌸𐍃 (“step, grade”), bar Gritt (“step, stride”), Lithuanian grìdiju (“to go, wander”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA