Expletive attributive

An expletive attributive is an adjective or adverb (or adjectival or adverbial phrase) that does not contribute to the propositional meaning of a sentence, but is used to intensify its emotional force. Often such words or phrases are regarded as profanity or "bad language", though there are also inoffensive expletive attributives. The word is derived from the Latin verb explere, meaning "to fill", and it was originally introduced into English in the seventeenth century for various kinds of .

Expletive comes from the Latin verb explere, meaning "to fill", via expletivus, "filling out". It was introduced into English in the seventeenth century for various kinds of padding—the padding out of a book with peripheral material, the addition of syllables to a line of poetry for metrical purposes, and so forth. Use of expletive for such a meaning is now rare. Rather, expletive is a linguistics term for a meaningless word filling a syntactic vacancy. Outside linguistics, the word is commonly used to refer to "bad language" or profanity. Some linguists use it as shorthand for "expletive attributive".

There are a large number of attributive adjectives and adverbs in English that function as expletives, indicating a speaker's anger, irritation, or in some cases strong approval or other emotion, without otherwise modifying the meaning of the phrase in which they occur.

An example of an expletive attributive is the word bloody as used in the following sentences.

An expletive attributive is an intensifier. Unlike other adjective or adverb usage, or bloody well in these sentences do not modify the meaning of miracle, good meal, or make it happen. The expletive attributives here suggest that the speaker feels strongly about the proposition being expressed.

Other vulgar words may also be used in this way.

, , and motherfucking do not contribute anything to the meaning. Rather, they suggest the strength of feeling of the speaker.

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