aggravating (adj.)

1670s, "making worse or more heinous" (implied in aggravatingly), present-participle adjective from aggravate (v.). Phrase aggravating circumstances is recorded from 1790. Weakened sense of "provoking, annoying" is by 1775. An earlier adjective in the sense "troublesome, causing difficulty" was Middle English aggravaunt (mid-15c.)