Fwd: "expletive" - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:  <oedwotd at oup.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Subject: "expletive" - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-AMER-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com


OED Online Word of the Day
________________________________

expletive, a. and n.

SECOND EDITION 1989

(kspltv, ksplitv)  [ad. L. expltv-us serving to fill out, f. explre:
see EXPLETE. Cf. Fr. explétif.]

    A. adj.

    1. Serving to fill out; introduced merely to occupy space, or to
make up a required quantity or number:    a. gen.

1656-81 in BLOUNT Glossogr. 1666 TILLOTSON Rule of Faith I. §3 Those
expletive topicks which popish writers..do generally make use of to
help out a book. 1761 CHURCHILL Rosciad Poems 1763 I. 16 Expletive
Kings, and Queens without a name. a1833 H. MORE in Leslie & Taylor Sir
J. Reynolds (1865) II. vii. 209 Scarce an expletive man or woman of
the party. 1874 KNIGHT Dict. Mech., Expletive~stone (Masonry), one
used for filling a vacuity.

    b. esp. Of words and phrases: Serving merely to fill out a
sentence, help out a metrical line, etc. Also occas. of a mode of
expression: Redundant, wordy.

a1677 BARROW Wks. (1741) I. xv 10 He useth them [oaths] as expletive
phrases..to plump his speech. a1771 R. WOOD Genius of Homer (1775) 288
Homer's particles were [not] altogether condemned to this mere
expletive duty. 1779-81 JOHNSON L.P., Addison Wks. III. 89 The lines,
which there is little temptation to load with expletive epithets. 1804
SOUTHEY in Robberds Mem. W. Taylor I. 494 ‘The Key my loose, powerless
fingers forsook’, a lame and expletive way of saying ‘I dropt the
key’. 1874 SAYCE Compar. Philol. i. 29 The influence of Emphasis
will..show itself..in the introduction of expletive ones [sounds].

    ¶c. nonce-use. Given to using expletives.

1857 MAYNE REID in Chamb. Jrnl. VII. 329 The old trapper had grown expletive.

    2. Having the attribute of supplying a deficiency. Obs.

1816 KEATINGE Trav. I. 38 Reymond..supplies this deficiency: but he is
not sufficiently expletive in regard to this eastern part of the
chain.

    3. Tending or seeking to supply a loss; compensative. rare. (Cf.
quot. 1853 s.v. EXPLETORY.)

1838-9 HALLAM Hist. Lit. III. iv. III. §117. 202 Punishment..is not a
part of attributive, and hardly of expletive justice.

    B. n.

    1. An expletive word or phrase, one used for filling up a
sentence, eking out a metrical line, etc. without adding anything to
the sense.

1612 BRINSLEY Lud. Lit. viii. (1627) 97 As also Conjunctions,
Copulatives [etc.]..so expletives, and certaine others. 1668 WILKINS
Real Char. I. iv. §6. 18 Words that are mere Expletives, not adding
any thing to the Sense. 1779-81 JOHNSON L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 136
Expletives he very early ejected from his verses. 1816 J. GILCHRIST
Philos. Etym. 185 Must insignificant particles be consecrated into
elegant expletives? 1838-9 HALLAM Hist. Lit. III. v III. §71. 277
Articles and expletives..are..employed for the sake of the metre, not
of the sense.

    b. Often applied to a profane oath or other meaningless exclamation.

1815 SCOTT Guy M. xxviii, Retaining only such of their expletives as
are least offensive. 1840 BARHAM Ingol. Leg., Spectre of Tapp.,
Tom..replied..with an expletive. 1891 E. PEACOCK N. Brenton I. 63
‘Confound him!’ or some stronger expletive exploded from the Earl's
lips.

    2. An ‘expletive’ person or thing; one that merely serves to fill up space.

1688 R. L'ESTRANGE Brief Hist. Times II. 69 This Article [of an
Impeachment] is an Expletive; and Signifies just nothing. 1755 YOUNG
Centaur ii. Wks. 1757 IV. 110 Was man made only to flutter, sing, and
expire? A mere expletive in the mighty work..of the Almighty? 1772
GRAVES Spir. Quixote IX. xv. (1783) III. 52 A gooseberry tart; with
other ornamental expletives of the same kind. 1872 O. W. HOLMES Poet
Breakf.-t. i. 9 He is a sort of expletive at the table, serving to
stop gaps.

    b. Something that supplies deficiencies; a supplement. rare.

1879 SIR G. G. SCOTT Lect. Archit. I. 207 They may..be studied [in
Italy]..as an aid and expletive to what we learn elsewhere.

    Hence expletively adv., in an expletive manner, with redundancy of
expression. expletiveness, the quality of being expletive.

1607 HIERON Defence I. 160 To be put in expletiuely and by way of
explication. 1860 J. YOUNG Prov. Reason 171 Loosely, expletively,
rhetorically, we speak of the Infinite Life. 1730-6 BAILEY (folio),
Expletiveness, expletive or filling up quality.

Visit the OED's home page at http://www.oed.com