DanielSan wrote, On 5/23/2008 12:46 AM:

elaborate:
[f. L. {emac}lab{omac}r{amac}t- ppl. stem of {emac}lab{omac}r{amac}re to
work out, produce by labour, f. {emac} out + lab{omac}r{amac}re to LABOUR.
Sense 2 may probably be the earliest in Eng. from the use of the L.
word by writers on alchemy or medicine. Cf. Fr. élaborer, 16th c.
(Littré) = sense 2.]

1. To produce or develop by the application of labour; to fashion
(a product of art or industry) from the raw material; to work out in
detail, give finish or completeness to (an invention, a theory, literary
or artistic work, etc.).
1611 COTGR., Elabourer, to elaborate. 1626 COCKERAM, Elaborate, to do a
thing with great paines. 1726 YOUNG Love Fame Wks. (1866) II. 96 Attend,
and you discern it [ambition] in the fair Conduct a finger, Or, in full
joy, elaborate a sigh. 1846 RUSKIN Mod. Paint. (1848) I. II. I. vii. §12
85 The objects of landscape may be either elaborated or suggested
according to their place and claim. 1850 GLADSTONE Glean. V. cx. 238 The
constitutional system which was in course of being gradually elaborated
and matured. 1865 LECKY Ration. (1878) II. v. 199 He elaborates his
theory from his own reason. 1875 JOWETT Plato (ed. 2) III. 390 Little
things are elaborated with an infinity of pains.

2. transf. Of nature or natural agencies: To produce (a chemical
substance) from (its) elements or sources; to fashion or develop (an
animal or vegetable tissue, etc.); also, to transmute (crude materials)
into a developed product.
1607 T. WALKINGTON Opt. Glass. 54 Nothing elaborates our concoction more
then sleepe. 1665-9 BOYLE Occas. Refl. (1675) 65 Honey..is elaborated by
the Bee. 1671 J. WEBSTER Metallogr. iv. 81 If the waters be saltish,
pure and clear,..then a pure Metal is generated; but in defect of purity
an Impure Metal, in elaborating of which, Nature spreadeth..a thousand
years. 1744 BERKELEY Siris §87 The animal spirits are elaborated from
the blood. 1828 H. STEUART Planter's G. 211 As well might it be
imagined, that the roots elaborate it [the sap] in the leaves. 1834
SOUTHEY Doctor lxxvi. (1862) 161 The Sun, under whose influence one
plant elaborates nutriment for man and another poison. 1870 H. MACMILLAN
Bible Teach. x. 194 Year after year..the leaf is elaborating from air
and rain and sunshine..those solid structures which are destined to
outlive it.

3. intr. To become elaborate.
1876 H. SPENCER Princ. Sociol. I. §103 This custom elaborates as social
development goes through its earlier stages. 1903 R. LANGBRIDGE Flame &
Flood xx, These [sc. preparations] she discovered had augmented and
elaborated to a considerable extent.

ADDITIONS SERIES 1993

elaborate, v.

Add: [1.] b. intr. To explain something in detail; also, to
enlarge or expatiate on.
1934 WEBSTER s.v., Elaborate, to dwell at length upon a theme. 1970 D.
JACOBSON Rape of Tamar iv. 53, I don't need to elaborate on how
difficult it was for anything clandestine to take place in that part of
the palace. 1984 P. ACKROYD T. S. Eliot iii. 75 He did not develop as a
‘thinker’: he merely elaborated on the implications of his previous
convictions. 1987 Nucleonics Week 17 Dec. 9 Neither Bryne nor a SMUD
spokesperson elaborated.

--OED, SECOND EDITION 1989