Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
accelerate, exhilarate (vv.), accelerator (n.)
The verbs are not homophones (ak-SEL-uhr-AIT vs. eg-ZIL-uhr-AIT), but Vulgar English sometimes confuses exhilarate, meaning “to excite,” and accelerate, meaning “to speed up or cause to speed up” and specifically “to press a foot throttle and increase a vehicle’s speed.” An accelerator is generically “any agent used to speed up a chemical reaction or some other activity,” and it has a common specialized meaning, “the foot throttle of a motor vehicle.” See AGENTIVE ENDINGS.
