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Sunday Word: Expostulate
Nov. 19th, 2023 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sallymnexpostulate [ik-spos-chuh-leyt]
verb:
to reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done, remonstrate
Examples:
That the unofficial pope of Western atheism should expostulate about God in moments when life is a struggle does not of course mean that deep down atheists believe in God after all. (How much Christianity is hidden in British society?, BBC News, February 2012)
But her style, it is suggested (for what happened at those audiences was wholly confidential) was never to expostulate - merely to ask a leading question, or to drop a subtle hint. (Sarah Gristwood, Opinion: Why singing 'God Save the King' catches in the throat , CNN, September 2022 )
The generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command; she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate. (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein)
The patriarch sent me to expostulate the matter with the King, which I did in very warm terms, telling him that we were assured by the Emperor of a reception in this country far different from what we met with, which assurances he had confirmed by his promise and the civilities we were entertained with at our first arrival; but that instead of friends who would compassionate our miseries, and supply our necessities, we found ourselves in the midst of mortal enemies that wanted to destroy us. (Father Lobo, A Voyage to Abyssinia)
The poems drift from one focus to another; they avoid the histrionic; they sigh more often than they expostulate. (Vendler, Helen, 'Robert Lowell's Last Days and Last Poems.' from Robert Lowell: A Tribute)
Origin:
1530s, 'to demand, to claim,' from Latin expostulatus, past participle of expostulare 'to demand urgently, remonstrate, find fault, dispute, complain of, demand the reason (for someone's conduct),' from ex 'from' + postulare 'to demand'. Friendlier sense of 'to reason earnestly (with someone) against a course of action, etc.' is first recorded in English 1570s. (Online Etymology Dictionary)
