Along with Sunflower's feeling like a basket case, the term, "aggravate," meaning to vex, annoy, or torment came up today in a conversation with Sunflowr's mother. I was surprised, since this sense of the word was, I thought, strictly a Southernism, usually pronounced, "aigervait.". Do y'all use it where you are?
It's commonly used here, as Bob says, although I have heard a couple of people pronounce it as 'aggervate'.
Dictionary.com has a usage note:
quote:
Aggravate comes from the Latin verb aggravare, which meant “to make heavier,” that is, “to add to the weight of.” It also had the extended senses “to annoy” and “to oppress.” Some people claim that aggravate can only mean “to make worse,” and not “to irritate,” on the basis of the word's etymology. But in doing so, they ignore not only an English sense in use since the 17th century, but also one of the original Latin ones. Sixty-eight percent of the Usage Panel approves of its use in It's the endless wait for luggage that aggravates me the most about air travel.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
