Is it correct to say "over exaggerate"? or is exaggeration by nature already over emphasizing? Surely you either exaggerate or you don't? It just drives me mad when people say this all the time!
Over exaggeration
March 29th, 2006 by Adam
35 Responses to “Over exaggeration”
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There are times when exaggeration is appropriate. But if it is taken too far… what else would it be called?
Just as when something is "unique" or "not unique". You cannot say something is "very unique", etc.
To say "over exagerate" is redundante. Exagerate is enough.
Drama teacher: Brian, I know I said that when on stage you should exaggerate your body language so that even the people in the back row can see that your character is upset, but please don't over-exaggerate.
Exaggerate implies no degree, so it seems appropriate to indicate one sometimes: "He barely exaggerated!" or: "That was a huge exaggeration." But I am not sure if "over exaggerate" is the same principle. It seems intended to describe a supposedly different concept, rather than a degree, but it doesn't actually imply a different concept, because exaggerate does not mean "moderately exaggerate."
I think overexaggeration is clearly a useful concept. Just because exaggerate doesn't imply a degree is no reason not to supply one! And while I happen to hate the phrase "very unique", Isabella, I am in no way against modification by degree of absolute terms. Every visitor to this site should read the American Heritage Dictionary's comments on absolute terms, perhaps beginning with "unique":
http://www.bartleby.com/61/48/U0084800.html
Some interesting rationales have been put forth to justify the possible use of this expression; my first thought though, is that whenever I've actually heard those words combined this way, it's been done in complete ignorance. This is actually something that quite irks me whenever I hear it.
Thinking over whether the words _could_ ever be combined thusly and be grammatically correct, I come to another conclusion – while "over" can be an adverb, I believe it is used incorrectly in this case. (The examples I find in my dictionary are too numerous to cite, but none match this case.)
I believe the correct way to word the [unlikely but possible?] meanings suggested by some would be "_overly_ exaggerate".
I would suggest that, technically, "over" is not used as an adverb in this case because overexaggerate is actually one word, not two.
PS – overexagerrate is in the dictionary, meaning, not suprisingly, "…to go beyond anticipated exaggeration"
The use of "over" as a verbal prefix suggests that there is a manifest level of degree that is expected or considered proper: overeat, overstay, overrate, overdose, etc. The use of such a prefix with activities that imply an inherent state of excess or impropriety, e.g., overfib, overembezzle, overinebriate, overslander, etc. is pointless because there is no level of appropriateness to be exceeded.
Oh, come one now. Bismarck. Certainly many may misuse overexaggerate, but one can construct a valid and correct (if somewhat stilted) sentence for every "over.." word you have listed… except for overinebriate, of course. No amount of inebriation could be considered excessive, so I would have to say there is no such thing as overinebriation.
Yet there's certainly a state of underinebriation. Alas, I'm in it now.
I'm not sure about underfibbing or underembezzling (I'd like to know how much I'm allowed to underembezzle before it rises to the state of appropriate embezzlement).
I think you've overmisconstrued my point, porsche.
oversuck my dick
porsche, in inebriation is to simply "make drunk", then could you not inebriate someone so that the consequences are so great they are fatal? Why not? why would can you add over- to exaggerate but not inebriate?
Um, Doc, it was a joke. You're taking it too literally.
Hahahahaha, jae's comment is hella funny.
so can you underexaggerate?
of course you can underexaggerate–I imagine it happening the morning after a less-then-enthralling sexual experience while a young lady is regaling her best friend with the tale of her unimpressive companion! ;->
you can't over or under exaggerate. An under exaggeration would be the true value making it not an exaggeration at all and an over exaggeration is impossible because you can't take something with no value too far. If you have nothing, would you say you have to much of nothing. The numbers of an exaggeration have no value so you can never take it to far.
I think you certainly can over or under exaggerate if "exaggerate" is a target, specific or implied. I may be wrong, but I believe you can "over" or "under" anything that is used as a target, threshold, or boundary.
If "overexaggerate" is used where "exaggerate" would be appropriate, then that usage would be incorrect.
Agreed. If this apple can be big, it can also be really big. Furthermore, it can be really really really big. Therefore, if I can exaggerate, I can also overexaggerate. I can also supercrazyridiculousoverexaggerate.
Exaggeration:
The sweltering heat of the summer had to be at least a 110 degrees.
(suppose it was not anywhere near 110 degrees)
Over-exaggeration:
The sweltering heat of the summer had to be a billion degrees or more!
Proof by Contradiction:
"You can make the jump, it's only five feet."
"I think you're under-exaggerating. It's more like 30 feet"
It remains to be proven that it is necessary to specify under or over.
—-
"Sir, the report has just come in. Top commando Boolean just phoned General Foo and told him the enemies could be counted in the hundreds. Foo states that the account is an exaggeration."
"An exaggeration? So there are less than a hundred or is the number actually in the thousands?
- Ambiguity must be resolved in this specific instance. Because there exists at least one scenario in which clarification is needed, the prefix over and under are deemed correct by appealing to proof by contradiction []
I agree that overexaggerate may be used when referring to physical motions, like in the example slemmet cited. As far as exaggerating in a story, I don't think it's acceptable. Lets say a person longjumps 9 feet, but when telling the story they say "Yeah I jumped 10 feet yesterday." Thats an exaggeration. If that same person said "I jumped 15 feet", thats not overexaggerating, thats just lying. So the prefix "over" in that context doesn't really apply.
Excluding physical gestures, an exaggeration is a stretch of the truth for the purpose of coloring a story, an "overexaggeration" is just a blatent lie.
"Bill always says his 'big catch' was 5 feet long when it was really only three, but 10 feet for a striped bass? Now THAT's overexagerating!"
(as already stated above, from the dictionary definition: "…to go beyond anticipated exaggeration")
And Brandon, if you want to get technical, ALL exaggeration is lying.
PS, forgive the misspelling above, that's two g's in "overexaggerating" (I know how picky some are around here).
i think that everyone here is way to technical and that i agree with anonymous every exaggeration is lying but i have my own view on over-exaggeration when people over-exaggerate they just take it way to far and like brandon said its just blatent lying so thats my view on this subject
exaggeration is just a lie.
God! All you people are over-exagerating, you yanks just dont get English lol. Always hacking our language and claiming it for yourself. We stole our words from the rest of the world, and most English is a variant of French, since that literacy, at least anglo came about when the English reading, writing, and speech became common. And not just for the rich. exagerate as is to over-ephasise. lol and over-e xagerate as is to exagerate over emphasis.
For example, when exageration occurs in any context, then it is blowing the ephasis out of proportion, ie, im so hungry, i could eat a horse.
For example, when over-exageraton occurs the point has been lost and the subject has been blown out of proportion. ie, im so hungry, i could eat a horse, then a whale!
Exagerate does have boundaries. you can only exagerate so far, as to blow the whole thing out of proportion and then go on a tangent.
When you exagerate you are twisting the truth. you are hungry but could not possibly eat a horse. Therefore exagerated how hungry you are. any further from the point, is off the point, and the point has been lost, a boast becomes a lie. many people over-exagerate to tell a better story, such as the media, or chinese whispers.
To under=exagerate is to stay to the point, but make it seem further away, instead of distancing. ie, she has taken what I have said out of context and out of proportion, no i didnt, i was merely stating a fact.
Well im ten stone, no you are not you are fifteen, no you are not you are five!
In general conversation I have had sex with over fifty women, dont lie its no more than 25, well actually it was ten.
As men always over-exagerate, and women always under-exagerate how many people they have slept with.
Underexageration: I'm so hungry I could eat a pony!
Porsche…look up pony in cockney rhyming slang and I think you are actually over exaggerating, as you could not possibly be hungry enough to eat one of those ;)
I just chanced on this thread, and I think "overmisconstrued" is an excellent word, or in terms of Pony.. an excrement word.
Rickie Vallance’s posting is so trustworthy he can’t even spell exaggerate, so how can you take his answer as having any value.
col Berg:
By that logic, your own response is equally trustworthy, as you’ve spelled “Richie” wrong. Furthermore, you’ve ended a question with a period, which makes it somewhat less than a question, and not at all a sentence.
None of this matters, though, because I don’t agree with either of you. That’s a guess, anyway, because I’m way too lazy to figure out what Richie is even trying to say behind all of that atrocious grammar.
For the record, I think we can safely consider “atrocious grammar” an under exaggeration in this instance.
First, there is no word “underexaggerate.” What you’re thinking of is “understate.” To say you have a mere flesh wound when someone has fatally stabbed you is to make an understatment (not an underexaggeration). You also can’t underenlarge things or underincrease your paycheck.
If you can have an apple, a big apple, and a really big apple, does not mean that you can underexaggerate, exaggerate, and overexaggerate. “Exaggerate” is fundamentally over-the-top, while apples are not. “Exaggerate” is not a neutral word in this way. It describes the act of over-enlarging in a certain sense. You cannot overly over-enlarge.
“There were a thousand people in the elevator” is an exaggeration. “There were a million-bazillion people in the elevatir” is also an exaggeration, not an over-exaggeration. There do not need to be degrees of exaggeration because the word in itself includes doing an action “to a degree that is already higher than what is normal or usual.”
When people say something is ‘over exaggerated’ they mean it’s a hyperbole, and that it is obvious that someone stretched the truth.(At least that is what I think…)