FromLate Latinexplētīvus(“serving to fill out”), fromLatinexplētus, the perfect passive participle ofexpleō(“fill out”), itself fromex(“out, completely”) + *pleō(“fill”).
expletive (comparativemoreexpletive,superlativemostexpletive)
- Serving tofill up, merely foreffect, otherwise redundant.
- Synonym:expletory
1839, Henry Hallam,Introduction to the Literature of Europe, volume 3, London: John Murray,→OCLC, page501:No one entered more fully than Shakespeare into the character of this species of poetry, which admits of noexpletive imagery, no merely ornamental line.
1683, Isaac Barrow,The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow, London: M. Flesher for B. Aylmer,→OCLC, Against vain and raſh Swearing:deprecating being taken for ſerious, or to be underſtood that he meaneth any thing by them; but only that he uſeth them asexpletive phraſes ... to plump his ſpeech, and fill up ſentences.
- Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers).
| Examples (syntactic filler) |
|---|
It is snowing. |
| Examples (strengthener) |
|---|
Drop thefucking gun, asshole!; I wouldn't be surprised if they did(n't) get married; after all, they've already been together for years. |
| Examples (interjectory) |
|---|
Shit! It's snowing! Get ready to drive home right away! |
expletive (pluralexpletives)
- Aprofane,vulgar term, notably acurse orobsceneoath.
- Synonyms:swear word,bad word,oath
If we don't take advantage of any [expletive] in any way, then it's our loss.
- (linguistics) Aword withoutmeaning added to fill asyntacticposition.
- (linguistics) A word that adds to thestrength of aphrase without affecting its meaning(such asfuckin in "there's no fuckin way he's gonna get away with it").
- Synonym:intensifier
- Anobscene or otherwiseoffensiveinterjection(such asshit,fuck, ordamn it).
- Hypernym:interjection
word added to fill a syntactic position
word that adds strength to a phrase
Translations to be checked
expletive on Wikipedia.Wikipedia