USAGE PARAGRAPHS

Brief usage paragraphs have been placed at a number of entries for terms that are considered to present problems of confused or disputed usage. A usage paragraph typically summarizes the historical background of the item and its associated body of opinion, compares these with available evidence of current usage, and often adds a few words of suitable advice for the dictionary user.

Each paragraph is signaled by a boldface usage. Where appropriate, discussion is keyed by sense number to the definition of the meaning in question. Most paragraphs incorporate appropriate verbal illustrations and illustrative quotations to clarify and exemplify the points being made:

Main Entry: ag.gra.vate
Function: transitive verb
1 obsolete a : to make heavy : BURDEN b : increase
2 : to make worse, more serious, or more severe : intensify unpleasantly <problems have been aggravated by neglect>
3 a : to rouse to displeasure or anger by usually persistent and often petty goading b : to produce inflammation in
usage Although aggravate has been used in sense 3a since the 17th century, it has been the object of disapproval only since about 1870. It is used in expository prose <when his silly conceit . . . about his not-very-good early work has begun to aggravate us --William Styron> but seems to be more common in speech and casual writing <a good profession for him, because bus drivers get aggravated --Jackie Gleason (interview, 1986)> <& now this letter comes to aggravate me a thousand times worse --Mark Twain (letter, 1864)>. Sense 2 is far more common than sense 3a in published prose. Such is not the case, however, with aggravation and aggravating. Aggravation is used in sense 3 somewhat more than in its earlier senses; aggravating has practically no use other than to express annoyance.

When a second word is also discussed in a paragraph, the main entry for that word is followed by a run-on "usage see" cross-reference, which points to the entry where the paragraph may be found:

Main Entry: ²af.fect
Function: verb
usage see EFFECT

 

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