expletive

See also: explétive

English

Etymology

From Late Latin explētīvus (“serving to fill out”), from Latin explētus, the perfect passive participle of expleō (“fill out”), itself from ex (“out, completely”) + *pleō (“fill”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspliːtɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛksplətɪv/

Adjective

expletive (comparative more expletive, superlative most expletive)

1. Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.

   Synonym: expletory

   • 1839, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, volume 3, London: John Murray, →OCLC, page 501:

     No one entered more fully than Shakespeare into the character of this species of poetry, which admits of no expletive 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 as expletive phraſes ... to plump his ſpeech, and fill up ſentences.

2. Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers).

Derived terms

• expletive infixation
• expletively
• expletiveness
• sexpletive

Translations

serving to fill up

• Bulgarian: вмъкнат (vmǎknat)
• Catalan: expletiu
• Dutch: opvullend (nl)
• Finnish: täyte-, täyttävä (fi), lisä- (fi)
• German: Füllwort (de) n
• Italian: pleonastico (it), riempitivo (it)
• Portuguese: expletivo (pt)
• Spanish: expletivo (es)

marked by phrase-fillers

• Dutch: expletief (nl), vol krachttermen
• Italian: espletivo

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} explétif (fr)

Noun

Examples (syntactic filler)
It is snowing.

Examples (strengthener)
I can't fucking believe it's fucking snowing already.

Examples (interjectory)
Shit! It's snowing! Get ready to drive home right away!

expletive (plural expletives)

2. A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath.

   Synonyms: swear word, bad word, oath

   If we don't take advantage of any [expletive] in any way, then it's our loss.

4. (linguistics) A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
6. (linguistics) A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning (such as fuckin in "there's no fuckin way he's gonna get away with it").

   Synonym: intensifier

8. An obscene or otherwise offensive interjection (such as shit, fuck, or damn it).

   Hypernym: interjection

Derived terms

• expletive deleted

Translations

profane, vulgar term — see swear word

word added to fill a syntactic position

• Bulgarian: вмъкната дума (vmǎknata duma)
• Dutch: vulsel (nl), opvulling (nl)
• Finnish: täytesana (fi)
• German: Expletivum n, Expletiv n
• Portuguese: expletivo (pt) m, expletiva f

word that adds strength to a phrase

• Dutch: expletief (woord)
• Finnish: voimasana (fi)
• Swedish: kraftuttryck (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} explétif (fr) m
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} dolguluk

See also

• explicative

Further reading

• expletive on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967