a. and sb. [ad. med.L. expositōri-us (Boethius), f. expositor: see prec. Cf. OF. expositoire.]
A. adj.
1. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of, exposition; serving to set forth the meaning (of something); containing an exposition; explanatory. Expository syllogism, etc.: (see quots. 1628, 1860).
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 262. First they call this forme an Expository Syllogisme onely, because the third argument is as it were an exposition.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 251. Name me one place in the New Testament that more evidently speaks in an Expository way of any Text in the Old?
1756. Johnson, Pref. Abridged Dict., This book may serve as a glossary or expository index to the poetical writers.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxxiii. (1862), VI. 402. To be able to elude inconvenient texts … by expository ingenuity.
1860. Veitch & Mansel, Hamilton’s Logic, I. 263, note. The instance selected is called the expositum (τὸ ἐκτεθὲν); and hence singular propositions are called expository.
1867. Mill, Inaug. Addr., 38. I could wish that it [instruction] were more expository, less polemical, and above all less dogmatic.
1884. Ld. Selborne, in Law Rep. 25 Chanc. Div. 493. Are the words ‘or in contemplation’ simply expository of the word ‘upon’?
2. Comb. † expository-wise, after the manner of an exposition; = EXPOSITORILY adv.
1600. Abp. Abbot, Exp. Jonah, 422. Whereas exegetically or expositorie-wise, it is now more largely amplified.
B. sb. = EXPOSITOR 2 b.
1751. in Chambers, Cycl.
Hence Expositorily adv., in an expository manner; by way of exposition, explanatorily.
a. 1631. Donne, Ess. (1651), 66. Of these words … I will expositorily say nothing.
