explicatio

Forms

explicātiō f (genitive explicātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin explicō (“to unfold; to explain”) + -tiō, an action noun.^[2][1][3] The verb is formed from ex- (“out”) and plicō (“to fold”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[3]

Through French it is the source of English explication.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short find it almost only in Cicero,^[4] whose first author it is:^[5] he has quasi rudentis explicātiō, “like the paying out of a rope”, for the literal unfolding.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it above all of speech: the unfolding of a subject, an explanation of something obscure such as myths, the solution of a difficult question, and a brief and well-bounded account or definition.^[2][4] Vitruvius applies it to the laying out of private buildings and to wall paintings that set out myths in order.^[2]

Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the senses of unfolding and expounding,^[6] and Köbler finds it in Thomas Aquinas and in charters.^[5] English borrowed it through French in the 1520s for an explanation of a sentence or passage.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the uncoiling of a rope and of explanation.^[2][4][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the planning of buildings and of painted scenes.^[2][5]
• 1520s – English explication is borrowed through French.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An uncoiling, unfolding.^[2][4]
2. The laying out, planning (of buildings).^[2]
3. The solution of a difficulty; the explanation of something obscure.^[2][4]
4. A description, account;^[2][4] (rhetoric) a manner of exposition.^[2][4]
5. A pictorial representation.^[2]

Related words

• English explication

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson