English
exploit
Exploit comes from Old French esploit ‘income’, from Latin explicātus ‘unfolded, unfurled, uncoiled, loosened, spread…’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ‘to fold, plait, weave’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleḱ-‘to fold, plait, weave’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplicō‘to fold’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplicō‘to unfold’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplicātusas explicitus‘unfolded, unfurled, uncoiled, loosened, spread out, having been unfolded’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400esploit‘income’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587exploit
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleḱ-‘to fold, plait, weave’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplicō‘to fold’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplicō‘to unfold’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplicātusas explicitus‘unfolded, unfurled, uncoiled, loosened, spread out, having been unfolded’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400esploit‘income’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587exploit
Earliest quotation: c. 1587, Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedie: […] (Fourth Quarto): “Hieronimo, it greatly pleaſeth vs, / That in our…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ‘to fold, plait, weave’
complex, fiasco, replication, flax, flack, plexus, flagon, 34 more
through Latin plicō ‘to fold’
apply, display, reply, employment, imply, employ, replica, deploy, complication, complicate, implicit, accomplice, ply, complicity, ploy, implicate, supple, pliable, supplication, triplicate, pliant, splay, 22 more
through Latin explicō ‘to unfold’
inexplicable, explication, 8 more
through Latin explicātus ‘unfolded, unfurled, uncoiled, loosened, spread…’
Today it means
noun A heroic or extraordinary deed.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- / exploit