Etymology

exaggerate

ex·ag·ger·ate
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Today it means: To overstate, to describe more than the fact. Full definition →

Latin exaggerātus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromexaggerātus
  2. English todayexaggerate

Borrowed from Latin exaggerātus, perfect passive participle of exaggerō (“to heap up, increase, enlarge, magnify, amplify, exaggerate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ex- (“out, up”) + aggerō, aggerāre (“to heap up”), from agger (“a pile, heap, mound, dike, mole, pier, etc.”), from aggerō, aggerere (“to bear, carry to (some place), bring together”), from ad- (“to, toward”) + gerō (“to carry”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.