You have probably encountered the phrase "extenuating circumstances,"
which is one of the more common ways that this word turns up in modern
times.
Extenuate was borrowed into English in the late Middle Ages from Latin
extenuatus, the past participle of the verb
extenuare, which was itself formed by combining
ex- and the verb
tenuare, meaning "to make thin." In addition to the surviving senses,
extenuate once meant "to make light of" and "to make thin or emaciated"; although those senses are now obsolete, the connection to
tenuare can be traced somewhat more clearly through them.
Extenuate
is today mostly at home in technical and legal contexts, but it
occasionally
appears in general writing with what may be a developing
meaning: "to prolong, worsen, or exaggerate." This meaning, which is
likely due to a conflation with
extend or
accentuate (or both), is not yet fully established.
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