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explicatio

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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]
  • 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