Meaning

noun a general and progressive increase in prices

noun (cosmology) a brief exponential expansion of the universe (faster than the speed of light) postulated to have occurred shortly after the big bang

noun lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity

originFrom Middle English, borrowed from Old French inflation (“swelling”), from Latin īnflātiō (“expansion", "blowing up”), from īnflātus, the perfect passive participle of īnflō (“blow into, expand”), from in (“into”) + flō (“blow”). By surface analysis, inflate + -ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0