Thread: Account- account for

Hi maramaras:

The traditional account of the death of Moctezuma is that having been taken a willing hostage by Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors, he was killed by his own outraged peopl

In this sentence "account" means, explanation, tale, story or version and is not a synonym of consider.

The consideration of Moctezuma as a traitor accounts for his killing by his own people.

This sentence is fine. In this context consideration means "taking into account" or "considering that" Mocteczuma was a traitor...and "accounts for" is used as "explains why" he was killed.

I'm not sure what explicate means...that's a new word for me.


BTW: I thought that Mocteczuma was strangled by Cortez?

Originally Posted by maramaras

Is to account a synonym of to consider?
In the next sentence: The traditional account of the death of Moctezuma is that having been taken a willing hostage by Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors, he was killed by his own outraged people, could I say that Moctezuma was accounted(or considered) by have been killed by his own outraged people.
Another question: Is account for a synonym for to explicate, so might I say: The consideration of Moctezuma as a traitor accounts for his killing by his own people.
Well, I suppose there will be a lot of mistakes. Please, correct me!!!

You can say:
Moctezuma was considered to have been...
You cannot say:
Moctezuma was accounted by...

to account for = to explain
account = story, explanation (noun)

explicate: to give a detailed explanation of, to develop the implications of, analyze logically
(I had to look this one up. I don't ever remember hearing this word! (I'm a native English speaker.)
Apparently "explication" is also a word, but if I were you I'd stick to explain/explanation.

I totally agree with Vicente and MAriaklec. Account for is a a synonymof explain or justify.

Best regards

Originally Posted by mariaklec

explicate: to give a detailed explanation of, to develop the implications of, analyze logically
(I had to look this one up. I don't ever remember hearing this word! (I'm a native English speaker.)
Apparently "explication" is also a word, but if I were you I'd stick to explain/explanation.

De acuerdo. Aunque sean palabras válidas, explicate, explication no son palabras corrientes. In all my years (which are many) I have never seen or heard these words so for clarity, I too, would use explain/explanation instead.

Originally Posted by Faroá

This is not my business... and poking my nose into your conversation, but "explicate" and "explication" they do exist, and they come from Latin as we know.

To explicate means to unfold something, i.e. to explicate a poem. I've found these links amongst others which can provides us some "explanations".

Sometimes "to explicate" goes along with its opposite meaning "to implicate"... if I'm not mistaken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explication
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/explicate

Hello Faroá...your "nose" and input are welcome into the conversation I hope you understand that neither mariaklec nor I were questioning the existence of the words. Mariaklec (and I, too, now that I know) acknowledge that they exist, but why employ a limited use word like explicate that others might not know and you are unlikely to ever see again when you can use a more common word? The point is that they are not commonly used words and it would be better for a student of English such as maramaras to use more easily recognizable words in the early stages of her learning process.



On the topic: Her question was whether "account for" was a synonym of "to explicate" and from my understanding of the definition of explicate I'd say that "to account for" as a phrasal verb meaning "to make clear or to explain" is, indeed, loosely synonymous.


P.S. I'm not sure how you are making the association but I do not think implicate is the opposite, or an antonym, of explicate.

Antonyms of explicate:cloud, complicate, confuse, mystify, obscure, tangle

Synonyms:amplify, clear up, construe, demonstrate, develop, dilate, elucidate, enlarge upon, enucleate, expatiate, explain, expound, give the big picture, illustrate, interpret, make clear, make explicit, make plain, run down, spell out*, tell why, unfold, untangle, work out

and possibly "account for"


I must admit that this has taught me a new word...explicate...even if I never get to use it at least I will recognize it in the future.

Saludos!