Explicate
Etymology
From Latin "explicare" (to unfold, unroll), from ex- (out) and "plicare" (to fold) — the root shared by "explicit," "deploy," and "complicated." The literal act is unfolding something folded up, and to explicate a poem or argument is exactly that: opening it out so its inner structure shows.
verb · /EK-spluh-kayt/
To analyze and develop an idea or text in careful detail, drawing out its meaning.
What it names
The right verb for close, methodical unpacking — not a quick summary but a patient teasing-out of what a passage or concept contains.
Example
The seminar spent an hour helping students explicate a single dense paragraph of the treaty.
Related idea
To explain is to make understood by any means; to explicate is to unfold a text or idea point by point, drawing out what is folded inside it.