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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Expletive \Ex"ple*tive\, adjective [L. expletivus, from expletus, p. p. of explere to fill up; ex out+plere to fill, akin to plenus full: cf. F. expl['e]tif. See {Full}.] Filling up; hence, added merely for the purpose of filling up; superfluous. ''Expletive imagery.'' --Hallam.
Expletive phrases to plump his speech. --Barrow.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Expletive \Ex"ple*tive\, noun A word, letter, or syllable not necessary to the sense, but inserted to fill a vacancy; an oath.
While explectives their feeble aid to join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line. --Pope.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
expletive
noun
1: profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger; "expletives were deleted" [syn: {curse}, {curse word}, {oath}, {swearing}, {swearword}, {cuss}]
2: a word or phrase conveying no independent meaning but added to fill out a sentence or metrical line
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
81 Moby Thesaurus words for "expletive": battology, bedizenment, blurt, curse, cuss, cuss word, de trop, dirty name, dirty word, dispensable, duplication, duplication of effort, dysphemism, ecphonesis, ejaculation, embellishment, epithet, excess, exclamation, expendable, extravagance, fat, featherbedding, filler, filling, foul invective, frill, frills, frippery, gingerbread, gratuitous, in excess, iterative, luxury, macrology, naughty word, needless, needlessness, no-no, nonessential, oath, obscenity, ornamentation, outburst, overadornment, overlap, padding, payroll padding, pleonasm, pleonastic, profane oath, prolix, prolixity, redundance, redundancy, redundant, reiterative, repetitious, spare, stammering, stuttering, supererogatory, superfluity, superfluous, superfluousness, swear, swearword, tautologic, tautological, tautologism, tautologous, tautology, to spare, uncalled-for, unessential, unnecessariness, unnecessary, unneeded, verbose, verbosity, wordy
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