expletive

From Late Latin explētīvus (“serving to fill out”), from Latin explētus, the perfect passive participle of expleō (“fill out”), itself from ex (“out, completely”) + *pleō (“fill”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspliːtɪv/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛksplətɪv/

expletive (comparative more expletive, superlative most expletive)

1. Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.
   • 1839, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, volume 3, London: John Murray, OCLC 834184226, page 501:

     No one entered more fully than Shakespeare into the character of this species of poetry, which admits of no expletive imagery, no merely ornamental line.

   • 1683, Isaac Barrow, The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow, London: M. Flesher for B. Aylmer, OCLC 184765987, Against vain and raſh Swearing:

     deprecating being taken for ſerious, or to be underſtood that he meaneth any thing by them; but only that he uſeth them as expletive phraſes ... to plump his ſpeech, and fill up ſentences.

2. Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers).

• expletory

expletive (plural expletives)

1. A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath.
2. (linguistics) A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
3. (linguistics) A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning; an intensifier.

• expletive deleted

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967