View source for Exacerbated - exasperated

Some students have confused the two [[verb]]s '''exacerbate''' and '''exasperate''', along with their forms '''exacerbates''' and '''exasperates''' (the [[3rd person]] [[singular]] of the [[present tense]]); '''exacerbating''' and '''exasperating''' (the [[-ing participle]]; and '''exacerbated''' and '''exasperated''' (the [[past tense]] and [[past participle|participle]]. 
*'To '''exacerbate'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> is 'to make worse' 
::(Originally it meant 'to make pain more bitter' from the [[Latin]] ''ex-'', here an [[intensifier|intensive]] particle, and ''acerb[us]'' 'bitter' + the "verbal formative '''-ate''', ('''ate ''suffix<sup>3</sup>'''''" (''[[OED]]''), but now used of many other troubles as well as pain.
*The most common meaning of 'to '''exasperate'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> nowadays is 'to make [someone] angry', 'to irritate', 'to enrage'. 
::It too has changed its meaning. It originally meant 'to make [laws, sounds, language etc] more harsh', or 'to make [a disease etc] worse'; 'to make more painful', or 'to make worse'. (In [[Latin]], ''ex-'' here [[intensifier|intensified]] ''asper'', 'rough' and made the [[verb]] ''exasperare'', meaning 'to roughen', 'to irritate'.

The confusion between the two may have been more understandable than it is now, when the most important reason for the confusion seems to be due to a process of [[metathesis]]. 

 It is not good to muddle '''exacerbate''' and '''exasperate''' in academic writing.

[[category:typos]]
[[category:malapropisms]]
[[category:etymology]]
[[category:academic writing]]
[[Category:etymological curiosities]]