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I love the concept of the word 'endearing' meaning 'to make more dear/expensive', but it is apparently obsolete. Is there any word or short phrase that can replace it?

Sample sentence: "Transport is the 'endearing' factor of the vacation"

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  • "... the factor that jacks up the price ..."
    – Hot Licks
    Sep 27, 2015 at 12:31
  • 1
    "Transportation is the price hiking factor of the vacation"
    – Elian
    Sep 27, 2015 at 12:42
  • "Vacation expenses are highly sensitive to transport costs".
    – Graffito
    Sep 27, 2015 at 21:19

4 Answers 4

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Make more expensive was the original, now obsolete, meaning of to endear :

  • to make dear, esteemed, or beloved: He endeared himself to us with his gentle ways.
  • ( Obsolete) - to make costly.

(Random House Kernerman Webster's College)

From vocabulary.com

  • In the 1500s, endear meant "increase the value of," though it quickly came to mean "make dear," or perhaps to increase the emotional value, especially of another person.

Endear: (Etymonline)

  • 1580s, "to enhance the value of," also "win the affection of," from en- (1) "make, put in" + dear (adj.). Meaning "to make dear," the main modern is from 1640s.
  • Regarding your sentence, You can express the concept saying that : transportation is the more expensive part of the vacation, or transportation is what makes the vacation expensive.
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Sample sentence: "Transport is the 'endearing' factor of the vacation"

How aobut using "cost-fuelling" or "cost-raising" factor? instead of endearing factor?

I don't think people will have difficulty in understanding what they mean.

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You could also turn your sentence the other way around and say:

transportation is the most empoverishing factor of vacationing

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I would just say expensive, because that is exactly what it is.

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