Overkill

We as a society have worked hard over the years to rid ourselves of the non-word "irregardless" with its obnoxious double negative prefix. And we’ve done a pretty good job I think. You don’t hear it as much anymore, thank goodness.  So perhaps it’s time for another life improving purge of our everyday verbiage. I’m talking about “overexaggerate”. Yeah. Do we really need the “over” here? Isn’t exaggerate itself enough? Are we piling on here with another obnoxious double negative? Is this phrase “over” the top?  Does the use of “over” make it sound like exaggerating by itself is OK?

 Is there a line between exaggerating and overexaggerating, and if so, where is that line? Should there be a next level called “extraoverexaggerating”?

Spellcheck says "overexaggerate" is not even a word. But Merriam Webster says it is a word. If those two can’t agree, maybe we’re not gonna settle this here, kind readers. But we’re obviously onto something huge, I think. And I don’t think I’m exaggerating. Maybe, in fact, I'm "underexaggerating" its importance.