From Latin expōnere 'to set forth,' the mathematical sense coined by William Jones in 1706 for the power a base is raised to.
A quantity representing the power to which a number or expression is raised, or a person who advocates a particular idea.
From Latin expōnentem 'one who sets forth,' present participle of expōnere 'to put out, set forth, explain,' from ex- 'out' + pōnere 'to place.' The mathematical sense was introduced in 1706 by William Jones, who used it to mean the number that 'sets forth' how many times a base is multiplied. Key roots: *ex- (Latin: "out"), *po- (Proto-Indo-European: "to put