explanare (litterally,” to make level or smooth,” then to explain; verbum aut rem; aliquid definiendo; rem obscuram interpretando; aliquid conjectura; also with deponent clause, qualis sit... differentia, etc.). (The words are found in this connection and order.) docere et explanare: explicare (to unfold; then to explain what was involved, abstruse, etc.; rem latentem explicare definiendo, explicare interpretando philosophiam Graecam, etc.; also explicare de aliqua re of a longer and fuller explanation. ☞ Perfect and past participle explicavi; explicatus): exponere (litterally, to make a clear or full exposition; but not in the sense of explaining the meaning of an author, etc. [for explanare, enodare, interpretari, enucleare, explicare, enarrare, all common in Quint.]; exponere rationem operis; rem pluribus verbis or breviter sententias alicujus, etc.): illustrare aliquid: lucem or lumen alicui rei afferre (affundere erroneous): dare alicui rei lumen: aperire: interpretari (interpret: words and things which seem to be without sense to a person not initiated in them: occulta et quasi involuta aperire): enodare (to untie, as it were, a knot; to explain intricate or insidious matters; e.g., the snares of the law, laqueos juris): rationem, causam afferre, or afferre only, followed by cur (e.g., cur credam, afferre possum): to explain why this must be so, rationes cur hoc ita sit afferre: to explain satisfactorily, justas causas afferre alicujus rei, or cur with subjunctive. To explain a mistake, errorem aperire (to show its nature, and how it arose). To explain doubts, dubia aperire. To explain one thing from another, causam alicujus rei repetere ex re. To be difficult to explain, difficiles habere explicatus (of what is difficult to make intelligible). To explain my opinion, exponere or expromere quid sentiam; sententiam suam aperire, dicere; a difficult subject, notionem rei involutae aperire; the nature of anything, naturam alicujus rei evolvere: to explain one’s meaning fully, pluribus verbis disserere de re; accuratius exponere de aliqua re. Anything is easier to understand than to explain, aliquid facilius intelligi quam explanari potest.