Dissertate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To speak or write at considerable length about a particular subject or topic
2. To expound or discourse extensively upon a matter in a formal or detailed manner
3. To elaborate on a subject through prolonged discussion or written treatment

Etymology: The verb "dissertate" first appears in English in 1766, and it did not come first. It was built backwards from "dissertation," which had long been in use. Speakers saw the noun ending in "-ation," assumed the verb must be "dissertate," and the verb followed the noun rather than the other way round. The verb's deeper roots run through Latin. "Dissertare" meant "to argue" or "to discuss," and it was a frequentative form of "disserere," meaning to discuss at length or to set things in order. Latin also gave English "dissert," a doublet that shares this same ancestry but entered the language separately and kept a distinct, more formal sense. The word thus ended up as a neat piece of English word-making: a Latin discussion verb whose English life began with a noun it was later reverse-engineered from.

Synonyms: discourse, expatiate, expound