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supplicate

supp·li·cate

UK/ˈsʌplɪkeɪt/ US/ˈsəpləˌkeɪt/ uncommon archaic

verb

1.

ask humbly (for something)

  • “He supplicated the King for clemency”
2.

make a humble, earnest petition

  • “supplicate for permission”
3.

ask for humbly or earnestly, as in prayer

  • “supplicate God”

Origin

PIE word *upó From Late Middle English supplicaten (“to request (that someone do something)”) [and other forms], borrowed from Latin supplicātus (“prayed”) + Middle English -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs). Supplicātus is the perfect passive participle of supplicō (“to pray, supplicate; to beg, humbly beseech”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more), from sup- (variant of sub- (prefix meaning ‘below, beneath, under’)) + plicō (“to bend, flex; to fold; to roll up”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to fold; to plait, weave”)).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.