Let us examine the meaning of the word "exaggerate." It often flickers here and there. Yes, many people probably have a general idea, but it would be better if it became concrete and clear.
Value
An explanatory dictionary will help us, as always. It says that exaggerating is “to represent in exaggerated form, distort by unilateral underlining of something”. For example, if the director said that he would punish for being late, and some student decided to play a trick on the others and conveyed the official’s words like this: “He will hang all the latecomers in the corridor.” Perhaps there are exceptions, but, according to language practice, exaggeration includes a comic moment.
In other words, such concepts as “sarcasm”, “irony”, “ridicule” are tools of the action that we are considering. And not necessarily humor should be kind. For example: "Father said that he would rob us all of our inheritance." Although the parent actually stated that the children will get only a certain amount of money, he will transfer the rest to charity funds. So the children of Bill Gates can joke. Much more interesting is the meaning of the word “exaggerate” why people do it. There is no problem with the meaning of the verb. The reasons for not always good humor will be revealed only after we consider the words-substitutions.
Synonyms
Since the reader knows the content of the concept being analyzed, he can cope with the task himself. But still, we will help him so that the list of synonyms is at his fingertips just in case:
- exaggerate;
- hyperbolize;
- thicken paint;
- to irony;
- mock;
- replay.
The general meaning, we think, is understandable. Each definition is good in its context, and if you are too lazy to choose, then the word "exaggerate" is suitable, the meaning of which is clear to everyone.
“Irony - a mask for the defenseless”
This famous phrase from the feature film "Office Romance", which recently turned 40 years old, accurately conveys why people generally irony. Humor is a reaction to one’s own impotence to change anything. For example, a person who once again did not win the lottery may say: "I'm terribly lucky!". Yes, this is bad, but he does not lose his presence of mind.
Humor also helps when you cannot express directly what you want. A man jokes, puts a certain meaning in irony. Of course, you can always guess by tonality, which is what we’re talking about, but you won’t be suspicious. Although in known times they planted jokes, so you need to know the measure. And in the Soviet Union there was the so-called “Aesopian language”, when some wrote, investing something other than the obvious content, while others read between the lines. Of course, all this has little to do with humor, but is achieved by exaggerating certain qualities of prose as a whole or an individual character, and censorship will either understand or not.
In other words, the question of what the word “exaggerate” means can be answered as follows: to exaggerate or downplay, in any case, distort in order to hide one’s true feelings, which can somehow compromise a person. True, sometimes people are ironic in order to express their position unambiguously. There is a mask, but everything is obvious. Here is such an ambiguous verb "exaggerate." The meaning of the word in the process of parsing.
The interpretation of ridicule in psychoanalysis
They say that humor prolongs life, but for Freud, it’s not so simple. The ancestor of psychoanalysis saw the diagnosis in what a person finds funny. Or at least a characteristic allusion to anxieties, doubts and fears tormenting a person. For example, a person laughs or makes fun of artists, calls different directions “daubs”, but only because he himself would like to write, but he didn’t succeed.
It turns out, according to the studies of the founder of psychoanalytic theory, ridicule is a protective mechanism of the psyche called the “reactive formation”, or “reactive formation”. Its meaning is to prevent certain thoughts, feelings, and aspirations from breaking into the consciousness. Therefore, unacceptable trends are censored and presented as acceptable. If in a group it is customary to scoff at incomprehensible, and a person is afraid to be “not in trend”, then he unconsciously adjusts to the opinion of the environment. And here the verb “exaggerate”, the meaning of which we have analyzed, may well act as the main tool that hides the truth about oneself from a person.