Explanations of say French art welcomed by lovers once (8)
I believe the answer is:
exegeses
'explanations' is the definition.
(exegesis is a kind of explanation)
'say french art welcomed by lovers once' is the wordplay.
'say' becomes 'eg' (both can mean 'for example').
'french art' becomes 'es' ('is' in French - 'art' can mean 'is' eg 'thou art').
'welcomed by' indicates putting letters inside (letters welcomed inside).
'lovers once' becomes 'exes' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'eg'+'es'='eges'
'eges' going inside 'exes' is 'EXEGESES'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for exegeses that I've seen is " Textual explanations".)