Etymologically
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expostulo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈspɔs.tʊ.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ekˈspɔs.tu.lo][1]

Forms

expostulō (present infinitive expostulāre, perfect active expostulāvī, supine expostulātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + postulō (“to demand”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotation is in Plautus' Mostellaria, where a man thought a dead man was complaining because the door had been knocked on.[2]

Semantic evolution

Intransitively it is to remonstrate, and with an object to complain about something: in Terence a man wonders whether to go and complain to someone of an injury.[2] It also means to demand or call for, as in a letter of Vatinius to Cicero.[2] Lewis & Short note that in this sense it is mostly post-Augustan, where classical writers used exposcō, and that it is not found in Cicero.[4] Donatus explains the noun ⟨expostulātiō⟩ in his commentary on that line of Terence.[3] Church Latin glosses it to demand vehemently, require, dispute.[5] English expostulate is recorded from the 1530s, first meaning to demand or claim.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, to complain.[2][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence, to complain of an injury.[2][7]
  • 1530s – English expostulate.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To remonstrate, expostulate; to complain about something.[2][1][5]
  2. To demand urgently, call for.[2][4][1][5]

Word family

  • expostulātiō
  • expostulatus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de