expound

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expounen, also expounden,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French espondre (“to expound, set forth, explain”),^[2][5][4][6] from Latin expōnō (“to put out, set forth, explain”),^[2][5][4] formed from ex- (“out, forth”) and pōnō (“to put, place”).^[5][7][6] The American Heritage Dictionary gives the immediate source as Anglo-Norman espoundre.^[8] The OED explains that the d arose in French, between the n and the r when the Latin infinitive contracted,^[2][3] although the Oxford Dictionary of English calls the origin of the English -d uncertain.^[9] In Middle English expoune prevailed, taken from the finite parts of the French verb such as esponent (“they explain”), while expounde, from the infinitive, appeared equally early in northern writers.^[2][4] The form without d became obsolete during the 16th century, helped by the parallel of sound for earlier soun and by the frequent past participle ending in -d.^[2][3] On the same pattern, compoune became compound and propone became propound.^[2][4] Klein compares French pondre (“to lay eggs”),^[4] and the OED cites Italian esporre as a parallel.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To interpret or comment on Scripture: 1340, in Richard Rolle's Pricke of Conscience,^[2] and about 1340 in his Psalter according to Barnhart.^[3] Etymonline likewise dates the verb to the mid-14th century,^[5] and Merriam-Webster to the 14th century,^[7] but Dictionary.com gives 1250–1300^[10] and Collins the 13th century.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word began in religious use, and Etymonline dates the general sense "to set forth, describe" from the late 14th century;^[5] the OED's first record of stating doctrines or ideas in detail is in the early Wycliffite Bible, before 1382.^[2] The Middle English verb also covered interpreting a dream or riddle (from 1375), giving the meaning of a word or translating it (from 1377, in Piers Plowman, until 1653), and explaining any obscure passage (about 1400).^[2] Chaucer used it 11 times and Gower 4 times.^[12] From 1533 it could mean to give something a particular reading, a use that the OED now finds chiefly in law.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to explain; to clear; to interpret".^[13] The mathematical sense of setting out a quantity in figures or symbols dates from 1706,^[2] and is now rare.^[6] Modern dictionaries add an intransitive use with on or about, for speaking in detail or at length.^[9][11][14]

Timeline

• 1340 – to interpret or comment on Scripture.^[2][3]
• 1375 – to interpret a dream, vision or riddle (now archaic).^[2]
• 1377 – to give the meaning of a word, to translate (obsolete by 1653).^[2]
• before 1382 – to set forth or state in detail.^[2]
• c. 1400 – to explain what is difficult; to comment on a passage or an author.^[2]
• 1533 – to give a particular interpretation to, now chiefly in law.^[2]
• 1605 – to interpret a person's motives (obsolete by 1680).^[2]
• 1706 – to represent a mathematical quantity by figures or symbols.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To explain a theory or idea in careful detail: The lecturer expounded the rules of the new pension scheme.^[8][9][11]
2. To set forth or state a view, doctrine or principle.^[8][7][2]
3. (intransitive, with on or about) To speak in detail about something, often at length: She expounded on her plans for the garden all evening.^[8][11][14]
4. To explain the meaning of a text, especially to interpret scripture.^[9][2][6]
5. (law) To give a particular interpretation to a document or statement.^[2][6]
6. (archaic) To interpret a dream, symbol or riddle.^[2][6]
7. (obsolete, 1377–1653) To give the meaning of a word or name; to translate.^[2][6]

Word family

• expounder
• unexpounded

Related words

• exponent
• expose
• exposition
• position
• propound
• compound

References

1. ^ 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 q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers