20091228Word of the Day

junli

expatiate

\ek-SPAY-shee-ayt\ , intransitive verb;
1.To speak or write at length or in considerable detail.
2.To move about freely; to wander.
不及物动词 vi.
1.细说;详述[(+on/upon)]
He expatiated on the theme of the novel.
他阐述了那本小说的主题。
2.漫游
We expatiated through the beautiful country.
我们在风景秀丽的乡间漫游。

Quotes:
He had told her all he had been asked to tell--or all he meant to tell: at any rate he had been given abundant opportunity to expatiate upon a young man's darling subject--himself.
~Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope's Year
At the midday meal on fair day, a large one (meat loaf, boiled potato, broccoli), Mrs. Lucas, married to the man with the earache, expatiates on the difficulties of caring for a parakeet her daughter has unloaded upon her and which, let out of its cage for an airing, has escaped through the door suddenly opened by Mr. Lucas.
~William H. Pritchard, Updike: America's Man of Letters
His relationship with his family was for many years an unhappy one, and he does not care to expatiate upon it.
~Barbara La Fontaine, "Triple Threat On, Off And Off-Off Broadway", New York Times, February 25, 1968

Origin:
Expatiate is from Latin expatiari, "to walk or go far and wide," from ex-, "out" + spatiari, "to walk about," from spatium, "space; an open space, a place for walking in."