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explodo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word explodo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
second half of the 2nd century BC, Afranius
Ultimate origin
Latin plaudō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin plaudo
Latin explodo
Italian esplodere
From the same root
Latin complodo ← plaudo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈspɫoː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ekˈsplɔː.do][1]

Forms

explōdō (present infinitive explōdere, perfect active explōsī, supine explōsum); third conjugation[1] The spelling explaudō is also found, in Lucretius.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + plaudō (“to clap”).[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Georges cites it first from a fragment of Afranius, of a man driven off in Arpīnōs, to the people of Arpinum.[5][6] It was originally a word of the theatre, said of driving a player off the stage by clapping and hooting.[7][4]

Semantic evolution

Cicero writes that an actor is hissed and clapped off, exsībilātur et explōditur, and that if Aesopus is even a little hoarse he is driven off.[7][2] Lucretius speaks of driving away the night with clapping wings.[5] From this it came to mean to cast out, as when Seneca says of people struggling with the waves that fortune will not even cast them up on the sand,[2] and to reject or condemn an opinion: Cicero speaks of an argument explōsum et ēiectum, hooted off and thrown out.[2] Tertullian uses it of breaking wind.[5]

English explode, first recorded in the 1530s, at first meant to reject with scorn, a sense that survives in an exploded theory.[4]

Timeline

  • second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius uses it of driving a man away.[5][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses the form explaudō.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of actors hissed off and of rejected arguments.[2][7][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of fortune casting people out.[2][6]
  • 1530s – English borrows it as explode, “to reject with scorn”.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drive (an actor) off the stage by clapping or hissing.[2][7]
  2. To eject, cast out.[2]
  3. To reject, condemn (an opinion or a person's claims).[2][7]

Word family

  • explōsiō

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Explodo.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/explodo. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·