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Anexpletive attributive is anadjective oradverb (or adjectival or adverbial phrase) that does not contribute to themeaning of a sentence, but is used tointensify its emotional force. Often such words or phrases are regarded asprofanity or "bad language", though there are also inoffensive expletive attributives. The word is derived from theLatinverbexplere, meaning "to fill", and it was originally introduced into English in the 17th century for various kinds ofpadding.
Expletive comes from theLatin verbexplere, meaning "to fill", viaexpletivus, "filling out". It was introduced into English in the 17th century for various kinds of padding—the padding out of a book with peripheral material, the addition of syllables to a line of poetry for metrical purposes, and so forth. The use ofexpletive for such a meaning is now rare. Rather,expletive is a linguistics term for a meaningless word filling asyntactic vacancy. Outsidelinguistics, the word is commonly used to refer to "bad language" orprofanity. Some linguists use it as shorthand for "expletive attributive".
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There are manyattributive adjectives and adverbs inEnglish that function to indicate a speaker's anger, irritation or (in some cases) strong approval without otherwise modifying the meaning of the phrase in which they occur.[1] An example is the wordbloody as used in the following sentences:
An expletive attributive is a type ofintensifier. Unlike other adjective or adverb usage,bloody orbloody well in these sentences do not modify the meaning ofmiracle,good meal, ormake it happen. The expletive attributives here suggest that the speaker feels strongly about the proposition being expressed. Othervulgar words may also be used in this way:
Words that are never thought of as offensive can be used in similar ways. For example:
The phone line discussed may have, before it was cut off, been just as good as any other, so would not have beenwretched in the literal senses of "extremely shoddy", "devoid of hope" or similar. Rather,wretched serves here as a politer equivalent of expletivebloody and the like.
Besides usual positioning for adverbs and attributive adjectives, expletive attributives can be found in unusual positions where others rarely are (including otherintensifiers). Although considered colloquial at best, they are inserted:[2]
Depending on the precise definition (and the grammarian's general approach), these insertions may be classed asinfixation,[note 1]tmesis,diacope, interposition or unrecognized.
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