splain
See also: -splain
English
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Etymology 1
editVerb
editsplain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)
- (informal, dialectal) Aphetic form of explain.
- 1881, Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus:
- "Howsomever, dey 'ranged der 'fairs, en splained der bizness."
- 1905, R. F. Foster, “In Self Defence”, in The Bookman, volume 21:
- "Why, Lor' bless you, I never knew nothing about the rights of them things till you splained them to me yesterday, boss."
- 1947, John Avery Lomax, Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, page 195:
- "Den," he confided, "I 'splained to de release man 'bout lookin' fur a settin'-down job, an' he jes' sorta motioned to de do'."
Etymology 2
editPartly from the preceding sense, partly from -splain (after mansplaining).
Verb
editsplain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)
- (slang) To condescendingly explain something, often extensively, especially to someone that knows more about it; for example, to mansplain, whitesplain, etc.
References
edit- Merriam-Webster (March 2018) Words We're Watching: Splain; '-Splain' predates 'mansplain'. Let us explain.