Word Origin & History
explode
1538, from L. explodere "drive out or off by clapping," originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise," hence "drive out, reject" (a sense surviving in an exploded theory), from ex- "out" + plaudere "to clap, applaud," of uncertain origin. Eng. used it to mean "drive out with violence and sudden noise" (1660), later, "go off with a loud noise" (Amer.Eng. 1790); sense of "to burst with destructive force" is first recorded 1882; of population, 1959.