Etymograph

English

expletive

Expletive comes from Late Latin explētīvus ‘serving to fill out’, from Latin explētus ‘filled up, completed’, and ultimately from expleō ‘fill out’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexpleō‘fill out’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplētus‘filled up, completed’perfect passive participle of expleō
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEexplētīvus‘serving to fill out’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1683expletive

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexpleō‘fill out’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplētus‘filled up, completed’perfect passive participle of expleō
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEexplētīvus‘serving to fill out’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1683expletive

Earliest quotation: 1683, Isaac Barrow, The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow: “deprecating being taken for ſerious, or to be underſtood…”

A compound of ex ‘out, completely’ + *pleō ‘fill’

Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs ‘out’

Proto-Italic *eks

Latin ex ‘out, completely’

Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- ‘to fill’

Proto-Italic *plēō ‘to fill’

Latin *pleō ‘fill’

Every English word from Latin expleō

Today it means

adj Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin expleō / expletive

Shirt and support for this word