exacerbate •
\ig-ZASS-er-bayt\ • verb : to make more
violent, bitter, or severe
Examples:It seemed as
though every new attempt at a solution served only to exacerbate
the
problem.
"The rise of
commercial data profiling is exacerbating existing inequities in society and
could turn de facto discrimination into a high-tech enterprise." — Seeta
Peña Gangadharan, The New York Times, August 7,
2014
Did you know? Make it
a point to know that the Latin adjective acer, meaning "sharp," forms
the basis of a number of words that have come intoEnglish. The words acerbic
("having a bitter temper or sour mood"), acrid ("having a sharp
taste or odor"), and acrimony ("a harsh manner or disposition")
are just the tip of the iceberg. First appearing in English in the 17th
century, exacerbate derives from the Latin prefix ex-, which means "out
of" or "outside," and acerbus, which means "harsh" or
"bitter" and comes from acer. Just as pouring salt in a wound worsens
pain, things that exacerbate can cause a situation to go from bad to worse. A
pointed insult, for example, might exacerbate tensions between two rivals.
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