While explectives their feeble aid to join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
Expletive — Ex ple*tive, a. [L. expletivus, from expletus, p. p. of explere to fill up; ex out+plere to fill, akin to plenus full: cf. F. expl[ e]tif. See {Full}.] Filling up; hence, added merely for the purpose of filling up; superfluous. Expletive imagery … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
expletive — is an adjective and a noun: both are pronounced ik splee tiv, with the stress on the second syllable. The primary meaning is ‘filling out a sentence, line of verse, etc.’, and the noun denotes a word that does this, typically in verse, without… … Modern English usage
expletive — [eks′plətôr΄ēeks′plə tiv] n. [LL expletivus, serving to fill < L expletus, pp. of explere, to fill < ex , out, up + plere, to fill: see FULL1] 1. an oath or exclamation, esp. an obscenity 2. a word, phrase, etc. not needed for the sense but … English World dictionary
expletive — I noun addition, anathema, bad language, blaspheming, curse, denunciation, ecphonesis, embellishment, execration, foul invective, foul language, imprecation, injection, insertion, interjection, interpolation, irreverence, malediction, outcry,… … Law dictionary
expletive — [n] swear word; exclamation curse, cuss, cuss word, interjection, oath; concept 275 … New thesaurus
expletive — ► NOUN ▪ an oath or swear word. ORIGIN originally denoting a word used to fill out a sentence: from Latin expletivus, from explere fill out … English terms dictionary
Expletive — The word expletive is currently used in three senses: syntactic expletives, expletive attributives, and bad language .The word expletive comes from the Latin verb explere , meaning to fill , via expletivus , filling out . It was introduced into… … Wikipedia
expletive — {{11}}expletive (adj.) mid 15c., from L. expletivus (see EXPLETIVE (Cf. expletive) (n.)). {{12}}expletive (n.) 1610s, originally a word or phrase serving to fill out a sentence or metrical line, from M.Fr. explétif (15c.) and directly from L.L.… … Etymology dictionary
expletive — [17] Originally, an expletive word was simply one used to ‘fill up’ a line of verse, to complete its metrical pattern (expletive comes from Latin explētus, the past participle of explēre ‘fill out’, a compound formed from the prefix ex ‘out’ and… … The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins
expletive — [17] Originally, an expletive word was simply one used to ‘fill up’ a line of verse, to complete its metrical pattern (expletive comes from Latin explētus, the past participle of explēre ‘fill out’, a compound formed from the prefix ex ‘out’ and… … Word origins
