Making something appear larger than it actually is, or exaggerating the importance or seriousness of something.
From Latin 'magnifacere' (to make great: magnus 'great' + facere 'to make'). Used since the 16th century, both literally for optical magnification and metaphorically for exaggeration.
A magnifying glass works because a curved lens bends light rays—the same principle that led to the invention of microscopes and telescopes, which literally revealed the invisibly small and unimaginably distant, revolutionizing science.
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