- aggravate (v.)
- 1520s, from pp. adj. aggravate (late 15c.), from L. aggravatus, pp. of aggravare "to render troublesome, to make heavy" (see aggravation). Earlier in this sense was aggrave.
"To aggravate has properly only one meaning -- to make (an evil) worse or more serious." [Fowler]
Phrase aggravating circumstances is recorded from 1790.