different between aggravation vs botheration

English

Etymology

From Middle French aggravation.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

aggravation (countable and uncountable, plural aggravations)

1. The act of aggravating, or making worse; used of evils, natural or moral; the act of increasing in severity or heinousness; something additional to a crime or wrong and enhancing its guilt or injurious consequences.

   Synonym: exacerbation

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 1, chapter 10

     Adrian, whose health had always been weak, now suffered considerable aggravation of suffering from the effects of his wound.

2. Exaggerated representation.
3. An extrinsic circumstance or accident which increases the guilt of a crime or the misery of a calamity.
4. (informal) Provocation, irritation, annoyance.

Related terms

• aggravate

Translations

Further reading

• “aggravation”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• aggravation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• aggravation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Pronunciation

Noun

aggravation f (plural aggravations)

1. aggravation

Further reading

• “aggravation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From bother +? -ation (suffix indicating an action or process, or its result).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?ð???e??n?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?ð???e??(?)n/
• Rhymes: -e???n
• Hyphenation: bo?ther?a?tion

Interjection

botheration (originally Ireland, dated, often humorous)

1. A mild expression of annoyance or exasperation: bother!
   • 1918, Katherine Mansfield, "Prelude" in Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback, 2002, p. 120

     Botheration! How she had crumpled her skirt, kneeling in that idiotic way.

   • 1955, C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, Collins, 1998, Chapter 3,

     "Blast and botheration!" exclaimed Digory. "What's gone wrong now? [...]"

Translations

Noun

botheration (countable and uncountable, plural botherations) (originally Ireland, dated, often humorous)

1. (uncountable) The state of being bothered; annoyance, vexation.

   Synonyms: irritation; see also Thesaurus:annoyance

   • 1803, William Blake, Letter to his brother James Blake dated 30 January, 1803, in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David V. Erdman, New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1970, p. 696,

     I write in great haste & with a head full of botheration about various projected works [...]

   • 1982, Saul Bellow, The Dean's December, New York: Pocket Books, 1983, Chapter 4, p. 59,

     At home he read too many papers. He was better off without his daily dose of world botheration, sham happenings, without newspaper phrases.

2. (countable) An act of bothering or annoying.
3. (countable) A person or thing that causes bother, inconvenience, trouble, etc.

   Synonym: nuisance

   • 1954, Peter De Vries, The Tunnel of Love, New York: Popular Library, Chapter Six, p. 63,

     [...] the by-products and botherations that go with pleasures make it hardly worth it. Sex is supposedly life's greatest pleasure and look what it gives you.

Translations

References