explicate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin explicātus, the past participle of explicō (“to unfold, unravel, explain”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from ex- (“out”) and plicō (“to fold”),^[3][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[3][7] The OED and Hoad derive it more exactly from the Latin past participial stem, with the suffix -ate.^[6][8] The OED compares Anglo-Norman expliquer, whose senses "to unfold" and "to give a detailed account of" are recorded in the 14th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To express fully in words, to give a detailed account of: 1531, in Thomas Elyot's The Boke Named the Governour.^[6][2][4] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1530s,^[3] and the noun explication is slightly older, from 1528.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb already meant both "to unfold" and "to explain", and English took the sense of setting something out in words first: the literal "to unfold, unroll, spread out" is recorded only from 1562, and it died out by 1900.^[6] Other uses came and went in the 16th and 17th centuries: to display (1565–1753), to cause to expand (1578–1754), to solve a difficulty (1582–1776), to account for a phenomenon (1605–1729) and to extricate a person (1614–1703).^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "to unfold; to expand" first and "to explain; to clear; to interpret" second.^[9] The sense of developing what a notion or principle implies dates from 1628,^[6] and in the 20th century the verb became a term for analysing a literary work to reveal its meaning, from 1906.^[6]

Timeline

• 1531 – to give a detailed account of something in words.^[6][2][4]
• 1532 – adjective, expressed in words, explicit (obsolete by 1788).^[6]
• 1543 – to make the meaning of something clear, to clear up.^[6]
• 1562 – to unfold, unroll or spread out (obsolete).^[6]
• 1582 – to solve a difficulty, to unravel (obsolete by 1776).^[6]
• 1628 – to develop what a notion or principle implies.^[6]
• 1906 – to analyse a text in order to reveal its meaning.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To explain in detail; to analyse a text or idea so as to bring out its meaning: The tutor explicated a difficult sonnet line by line.^[4][10][6]
2. To develop a theory or principle, bringing out what it implies.^[10][6][11]
3. (obsolete, 1562–1900) To unfold, open out or spread out.^{[6][4][11][9]}
4. (obsolete, 1582–1776) To solve or unravel a difficulty.^[6][11]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1532–1788) Expressed in words; explicit; explicated.^[6][4]

Word family

• explication
• explicator
• unexplicated
• reexplicate

Related words

• complicate
• explicative
• explicit
• explain
• ply
• implicate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press