grav

(Latin: heavy, weighty)

aggravate (AG gruh vayt"), aggravates, aggravated, aggravating (verb forms)

1. To make worse, to worsen, to make more severe; to intensify, to inflame, to irritate, to increase, and to heighten: "Don't scratch because you will only aggravate the itch."
2. To annoy, to exasperate, to anger, to vex, to nettle, and to affront: "His bossy attitude aggravates me."

Aggravate really means to make worse: "The cold weather aggravated his rheumatism." For a long time, many teachers and critics said the word should not be used to mean to irritate, to annoy, or to vex. Today this use is considered acceptable by a vast majority of teachers, critics, and linguists; therefore, you may say, or write, "Stop aggravating me" without feeling guilty.

Word History

The Latin word gravis means "heavy", and aggravare means "to make heavy". From the past participle aggravatus, the English language borrowed aggravate, "to make heavy, weighty, serious, grievous".

Then the sense was transferred from the thing which is made grievous to the person who is annoyed by it, and aggravate acquired the sense of "to provoke, to annoy", sometimes thoughtlessly used in a flippant sense; such as, an "aggravating shoestring".

—Picturesque Word Origins; G. & C. Merriam Company;
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A; 1933; page 11.

aggravated, more aggravated, most aggravated (adjective forms)

1. Annoyed or bothered: "Sometimes he gets more aggravated than usual when she criticizes him."
2. Made more serious by the use of violence or the threat of violence: "He was convicted of aggravated assault."

aggravation (s), aggravations (pl) (noun forms)

1. The act or result of making a situation, an injury, a condition, etc. worse: "She was making every possible effort to avoid the aggravation of her existing back problem."
2. That which annoys or bothers a person: "More and more well educated and experienced people feel tha a career in politics simply is not worth all the aggravations."

aggrieve, aggrieves, aggrieved, aggrieving (verb forms)

1. To afflict a person with pain, trouble, or distress: "Their refusal to consider her situation was aggrieving the mother."
2. To inflict an actionable injury on someone: "His legal rights were aggrieved when the judge refused to let him testify against the company."

aggrieved, more aggrieved, most aggrieved (adjective forms)

1. Feeling strong anger as a result of unfair treatment: "She was an aggrieved victim of an assault by her husband."
2. Having suffered from unfair treatment: "The aggrieved person may obtain his treatment from a different medical facility."

aggrievedness (s) (noun)

Feelings of mental or physical pain or a misery resulting from an affliction: "The aggrievedness of the situation caused her to lose all hope of recovering from the stroke."

grave

gravely

gravid

1. Being with child; heavy with young; pregnant.
2. An advanced stage of pregnancy.

gravimeter

gravimetric

gravimetry

gravisphere

1. The area in which the gravitational force of a celestial body is predominant.
2. The spherical region of space dominated by the gravitational field of a celestial body.

gravitate

gravitating

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