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Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (transitive verb)
[ah-GRAN-dize', AG-rahn-dize'] 
1. to increase in scope; to enlarge or make great; extend
2. to make great or greater in power, rank, honor, influence, or wealth, usually applied to persons, countries, etc.
3. to make appear great or greater; to exalt or exaggerate: "Neil absolutely adored Elvis, and he had a tendency to aggrandize all of his accomplishments, even the most mundane, until it sounded as if the man were a deity among mortals, beyond any criticism."
noun forms: aggrandizement, aggrandizer
Origin:
Approximately 1634; borrowed from French, 'agrandiss,' an extended stem of 'agrandir' (Old French 'a': to + 'grandir': to increase - from Latin, 'grandire': to make great - related to English 'grand'). In Action:
"Every metropolis decides, one way or another, what to call that version of itself that includes its suburbs. Boston is roughly synonymous with Greater Boston; New York City is the heart of the Tri-State Area; San Francisco anchors the Bay Area. The sprawling city of Chicago and its environs have acquired the strange but fitting name "Chicagoland." Strange, because the "-land" suffix is usually reserved for larger land masses (Iceland, Greenland, New Zealand). In this case it appears to ennoble and aggrandize what is actually only a metropolitan area. Fitting, because the name "Chicagoland" nicely conveys the extensive flatness and openness of Chicago, which, were it not bounded by Lake Michigan on one side, might continue in all directions indefinitely."
Will Pritchard. 'Postcards from Chicagoland,' New England Review (1998). | |
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