The story
- Latin · derived fromexplētus
- Late Latin · borrowed fromexplētīvus“serving to fill out”
- English todayexpletive
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”).
Words from the same roots
Latinexplētus all →
explete
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.