Aggrandize

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Aggrandize

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:21 am

• aggrandize •

Pronunciation: ê-græn-daiz • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: To extend, increase the scope of, magnitude, or importance of.

Notes: Today's Good Word has become completely assimilated to English. Its present participle may be used as an adjective, aggrandizing, and the noun is aggrandizement. There is also a passive adjective, aggrandizable. Self-aggrandizement is the practice of exaggerating one's own importance; the adjective corresponding to this word is self-aggrandizing.

In Play: When one country acquires the territory of another by conquest, that is aggrandizement: "Colonialism was the territorial aggrandizement of regions around the world by the Europeans." But aggrandizement occurs around the office, too: "I aggrandized my reputation in the company by nicking the more luxurious pieces of furniture from the offices of others while they were away on business."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes to us directly from Middle French aggrandir, aggrandiss- "to extend, widen, expand", comprising ag- (= ad-) "(on)to" + grandire "to enlarge". French inherited grandire from Latin. The Latin word was built on grandis "big, great, strong". Grandis supplanted magnus "big, large" in all the Romance languages: in French grand, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish grande--all mean "big". Grandis shares the same source as Greek brenthyomai "to puff up, be haughty". In the Slavic languages it took a grander turn. In Russian today it is grud' "breast" (from the original grond'). Czech hrouda and Slovak hruda both mean "clod, chunk, lump". (Today's Good Word was reported by unself-aggrandizing Klimt, the mysterious regular in the Alpha Agora.)
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Slava
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Re: Aggrandize

Postby Slava » Sat Jul 05, 2014 2:47 am

Though not used this way lately, the one has as very contemporary meaning. Let's face it, if aggrandizement means "When one country acquires the territory of another by conquest," does that not apply to what Russia has done to Ukraine with Crimea?
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