compound

   "News of a crop failure in the northern part of the country will only compound the government's economic and political problems" (Times). Several authorities have deplored the use of compound in the sense of worsen, as it is employed above and increasingly elsewhere. They are right to point out that the usage springs from a misinterpretation of the word s original and more narrow meanings, though that in itself is insufficient cause to avoid it. Many other words have arrived at their present meanings through misinterpretation (see, for instance, internecine).

   A more pertinent consideration is whether we need compound in its looser sense. The answer must be no. In the example above, the writer might have used instead multiply, aggravate, heighten, worsen, exacerbate, add to, intensify, or any of a dozen other words. We should also remember that compound is already a busy word. Dictionaries list up to nine distinct meanings for it as a verb, seven as a noun, and nine as an adjective. In some of these, the words meanings are narrow. In legal parlance, for instance, compound has the very specific meaning "to forgo prosecution in return for payment or some other consideration" (it is from this that we get the widely misunderstood phrase "to compound a felony," which has nothing to do with aggravation). To use compound to mean worsen in such a context is bound to be misleading.

   All that said, most dictionaries recognize the newer meaning, so it cannot be called incorrect, but you should be aware that some more conservative users of English may object to it, and with some grounds.