to explore one's roots

1 5.1

Learn about your family history and cultural background

idiom

: explorar las raíces

Many people choose to explore their roots to better understand their cultural heritage.
want to explore one's roots

Examples

She plans to explore her roots by visiting the village where her ancestors lived.
Zumbi's new dream is to visit Africa... to explore his roots.

Waste Land (2010)
Of course, he called it an official "fact-finding" trip so that taxpayers could pick up the bill for his family's sojourn to explore his roots.

Blog text (13)
After doing some research, I decided to explore my roots and learn about my family's history.

Synonyms

to trace the origins

vsto explore one's roots

3 5.1

Find where something began or came from

focuses specifically on a person's lineage and cultural heritage rather than general sources

to trace family history

vsto explore one's roots

4.2

To find out where your family comes from

includes learning about cultural heritage and broader background beyond genealogical records

Antonyms

to disregard

119 3.9

Ignore something or someone on purpose

How Deeply

to trace family history

4.2

to explore one's roots

1 5.1

to question

570 1.0

Surface Forms

explore one's roots infinitive

explored one's roots past

explored one's roots past participle

exploring one's roots present participle

explores one's roots third person singular

Morphology

explore + one + roots

The verb 'explore' (investigate) combined with 'one's roots' (one's origins or background) yields a directly compositional meaning: investigate personal origins. The metaphor of 'roots' for ancestry is widespread across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would very likely infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Explore one's roots comes from the picture of digging under a tree to see its roots, which show where the tree began; so it is used when people look into their family past to 'learn about their family history'.