Etymograph

English

explore

Explore comes from Middle French explorer ‘to explore’, and goes back to Latin plōrō ‘to cry out’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplōrō‘to cry out’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplōrō‘to investigate, search out, seek, discover, examine, explore’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600explorer‘to explore’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1909explore

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplōrō‘to cry out’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexplōrō‘to investigate, search out, seek, discover, examine, explore’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600explorer‘to explore’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1909explore

Earliest quotation: 1909, Archibald Marshall pseudonym; Arthur Ham, A Court Ball: “They stayed together during three dances, went out on…”

The story

From Middle French explorer, from Latin explōrāre (‘to investigate, search out’), itself said to be originally a hunters' term meaning "to set up a loud cry", from ex- (‘out’) + plōrāre (‘to cry’), but the second element is also explained as "to make to flow" (from pluere (‘to flow’)).

Linked words

through Latin plōrō ‘to cry out’

deplore, 4 more

Today it means

verb To seek for something or after someone.

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

Etymograph / Latin plōrō / explore

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