expletive

• adj. 附加的；填补的
• n. 填补物；咒骂语

ex-, 向外。-ple, 满的，词源同full, fulfill. 即拿出去的，后用来指不便刊印的脏话，咒骂语。

1. profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger;

"expletives were deleted"

2. a word or phrase conveying no independent meaning but added to fill out a sentence or metrical line

expletive

expletive: [17] Originally, an expletive word was simply one used to ‘fill up’ a line of verse, to complete its metrical pattern (expletive comes from Latin explētus, the past participle of explēre ‘fill out’, a compound formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and plēre ‘fill’, source of English complete and related to English fill).

Hence the term came to be used for a redundant word, not contributing anything to the meaning of the sentence: “The Key my loose, powerless fingers forsook”, a lame and expletive way of saying “I dropt the key”, Robert Southey 1804. The first recorded example of its euphemistic application as a noun to ‘profanities’ is by Sir Walter Scott in Guy Mannering 1815: ‘retaining only such of their expletives as are least offensive’.
=> complete, full

expletive (n.)

1610s, "a word or phrase serving to fill out a sentence or metrical line," from Middle French explétif (15c.) and directly from Late Latin expletivus "serving to fill out," from explet-, past participle stem of Latin explere "fill out, fill up, glut," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + plere "to fill" (see pleio-).

Sense of "an exclamation," especially "a curse word, an oath," first recorded 1815 in Sir Walter Scott, popularized by edited transcripts of Watergate tapes (mid-1970s), in which expletive deleted replaced President Nixon's salty expressions. As an adjective, from 1660s.

expletive (adj.)

mid-15c., in grammar, "correlative," from Latin expletivus "serving to fill out" (see expletive (n.)).

I mean, I just about ( expletive ) in my pants.

我的意思是, 我只是在说 ( 咒骂 ) 我的裤子.

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We're not going to take this ( expletive ) any more.

我们不能再他妈这样下去了.

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It is a " damned human race " in a not merely expletive sense.

那是 “ 倒霉的人类 ”,这样说并非只是感叹的意思.

辞典例句

Please take your seats and shut the ( expletive ) up.

请你们入座,还有收声 ( 咒骂语 ) 了.

期刊摘选