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Idioms about aggregate

    in the aggregate, taken or considered as a whole: In the aggregate, our losses have been relatively small.

Origin of aggregate

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin aggregātus (past participle of aggregāre ), equivalent to ag- ag- + greg- (stem of grex “flock”) + -ātus -ate1

historical usage of aggregate

All three parts of speech of aggregate (adjective, noun, verb) come directly from Latin aggregāt-, the stem of aggregātus, the past participle of aggregāre.
Aggregāre is a compound of ag-, a variant of the prefix ad- “to, toward,” and a derivative of the noun grex (inflectional stem greg- ) “flock, herd, band, troop, company”; aggregāre therefore means “to make (people) flock together, enter into association, join”—the association with grex “flock” is clear.
The Latin forms come from the Proto-Indo-European root ger-, gere- “to gather, collect,” which appears in Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, and Slavic. Probably the most important derivative of ger-, gere- for the history of Western culture is the Greek noun agorá “meeting, assembly, market, marketplace, trade, traffic,” especially the Agora in Athens, the chief marketplace and center of the city’s civic life.

OTHER WORDS FROM aggregate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use aggregate in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for aggregate

aggregate

adjective (ˈæɡrɪɡɪt, -ˌɡeɪt)
formed of separate units collected into a whole; collective; corporate
(of fruits and flowers) composed of a dense cluster of carpels or florets
noun (ˈæɡrɪɡɪt, -ˌɡeɪt)
verb (ˈæɡrɪˌɡeɪt)
to combine or be combined into a body, etc
(tr) to amount to (a number)

Derived forms of aggregate

aggregately, adverbaggregative (ˈæɡrɪˌɡeɪtɪv), adjective

Word Origin for aggregate

C16: from Latin aggregāre to add to a flock or herd, attach (oneself) to, from grex flock
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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