explode

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin explōdō (“to drive out by clapping, hiss off the stage”), a variant of explaudō,^[2][3][4][5] made of Latin ex- (“out”) and plaudō (“to clap the hands, applaud”),^[2][3][6] the verb behind applaud and plaudit.^[7][5] The verb plaudō itself is of uncertain origin.^[3][5] The Latin word was originally a term of the theatre, used of an audience driving an actor off the stage with noise, and then meant more generally to drive out or reject;^[3][5][8] in post-classical Latin it could also mean to abolish (4th century) and, in British sources from the 8th century, to burst and to expose.^[2] The OED notes that explodieren meant "to reject" in 1539 and was borrowed back from English in the sense "to burst" in 1808.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To reject or discard an opinion, proposal or custom: a1552, in John Leland's Itinerary.^[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1538 and Etymonline to the 1530s.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The Roman theatrical sense also came into English: to drive a performer off the stage by clapping or booing is recorded from 1614, and to condemn or banish from 1563, but both are now obsolete.^[2][9] Merriam-Webster still lists the stage sense as archaic and dates it to 1605.^[10] From 1629 the verb meant to expose something as false or to discredit a theory,^[2][8] a sense that survives in the phrase an exploded theory.^[3][11] Johnson (1755) defined it only in the old ways, as to drive out disgracefully with a noise of contempt, or to treat with open scorn.^[12] Trench (1859) observed that when early writers spoke of an "exploded" heresy their image was not of something that had burst, but of something hissed off the stage.^[13] The modern meaning grew from the sense "to drive out with violence and sudden noise", recorded from 1650 and in Robert Boyle in 1660,^[2][5][3] and the Oxford Dictionary of English suggests it was perhaps influenced by obsolete displode, to burst with a noise.^[14] The OED records a substance made to undergo a violent chemical reaction from 1670, a substance doing so of itself from 1673, and an object bursting apart from 1784,^[2] while Barnhart finds "to go off with a loud noise", of a bomb, in American English in 1790.^[5] Etymonline dates the figurative sense "burst with destructive force" to 1882, "burst into sudden activity" to 1817, and the use for population to 1959.^[3]

Timeline

• 1538 – to reject or discard, in Barnhart's dating.^[5]
• a1552 – to reject or discard.^[2]
• 1563 – to condemn or banish (obsolete).^[2]
• 1614 – to drive a performer off the stage (obsolete).^[2]
• 1629 – to discredit or disprove a theory.^[2]
• 1650 – to drive out suddenly and noisily.^[2][3]
• 1673 – of a substance, to undergo a violent reaction.^[2]
• 1784 – of an object, to burst apart violently.^[2]
• 1790 – (US) to go off with a loud noise.^[5][3]
• 1817 – to burst into sudden activity.^[3]
• 1959 – of population, to increase suddenly.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To burst or fly apart violently and noisily, especially from the detonation of an explosive or from pressure within.
2. To cause something to burst in this way; to detonate.
3. Of a gas or other substance, to undergo a sudden violent expansion with heat, light and noise, as the result of a fast chemical or nuclear reaction.
4. To show a sudden, violent burst of emotion, especially anger: He exploded when the referee waved play on.
5. To increase suddenly and very fast, as a population or a market.
6. To show to be false or groundless; to discredit: Her research exploded several long-held assumptions.
7. (archaic) To drive a performer from the stage with noisy disapproval.

Word family

• exploder
• exploded

Related words

• explosion
• explosive
• implode
• implosive
• applaud
• plaudit
• plausible

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press