supplicate

English
WOTD – 6 August 2022

Etymology
PIE word
*upó

From Late Middle English supplicaten (“to request (that someone do something)”) [and other forms],[1] borrowed from Latin supplicātus (“prayed”) + Middle English -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).[2] Supplicātus is the perfect passive participle of supplicō (“to pray, supplicate; to beg, humbly beseech”), 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”)).[3]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsʌplɪkeɪt/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsʌpləˌkeɪt/
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Hyphenation: sup‧pli‧cate

Verb

supplicate (third-person singular simple present supplicates, present participle supplicating, simple past and past participle supplicated)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To make a humble request to (someone, especially a person in authority); to beg, to beseech, to entreat.
      Synonyms: implore, obsecrate, petition, plead, (obsolete) pray, sifflicate, (obsolete) thig
      • 1642 October 29 (Gregorian calendar), “Baron Henden’s Petition for Leave of Absence”, in Journals of the House of Lords, Beginning Anno Decimo Octavo Caroli Regis, 1642 (House of Lords), volume V, [London]: [House of Lords of the United Kingdom], →OCLC, page 408, column 2:
        "Your Petitioner, in all Submiſſiveneſs, moſt humbly ſupplicateth your Honourable Lordſhips, to be pleaſed to diſpenſe vvith your Petitioner's Attendance, until God ſhall better enable him." Ordered, That this Houſe doth diſpenſe vvith Mr. Baron [Edward] Henden’s Abſence,[sic – meaning presence] until his Health vvill permit him to come hither vvith Safety.
      • 1788, Peter Pindar [pseudonym; John Wolcot], “The Argument”, in An Apologetic Postscript to Ode upon Ode. […], new edition, London: […] G. Kearsley, […], →OCLC, page 6:
        Peter nobly acknowledgeth error, ſuſpecteth an interfering Devil, and ſupplicateth his Reader— […]
      • 1835, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “An Adventure”, in Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I (The Time, the Place, and the Men), page 57:
        [H]e had been conjoined with Petrarch to supplicate Clement VI. to remove the Holy See from Avignon to Rome.
      • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “[Experiments.] Boädicea”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 169:
        Did they hear me, would they listen, did they pity me supplicating? / Shall I heed them in their anguish? shall I brook to be supplicated?
      • 1909, J[ohn] A[llen] F[itzgerald] Gregg, edited by A[lexander] F[rancis] Kirkpatrick, The Wisdom of Solomon: In the Revised Version […] (The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, Wisdom of Solomon XIII:18, page 131:
        Yea for health he calleth upon that which is weak, / And for life he beseecheth that which is dead, / And for aid he supplicateth that which hath least experience, […]
        From the Revised Version of the Bible.
      1. (specifically, Oxford University, archaic) Of a member of the university, or an alumnus or alumna of another university seeking a degree ad eundem: to make a formal request (to the university) that an academic degree be awarded to oneself.
        • 1691, [Anthony Wood], “WILLIAM ALLEY”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volume I (Extending to the 16th Year of King Charles I. Dom. 1640), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […], →OCLC, column 127:
          In Nov. 1561 he [William Alley] ſupplicated the venerable congregation of Regents of the Univerſity that the Degree of Bach[elor] of Divinity might be conferr'd on him: vvhich being granted, he ſupplicated for that of Doctor; and that being granted alſo, he vvas admitted to them both ſucceſſively, vvithout any mention at all of Incorporation.
      2. (specifically, religion) To make a humble request to (a deity or other spiritual being) in a prayer; to entreat as a supplicant.
        to supplicate the Deity
        • 1664, Tho[mas] Worden, “I Come Now to Speak of the High Priest under the Law, which was a Type of Jesus Christ also”, in The Types Unvailed, or, The Gospel Pick’t Out of the Legal Ceremonies, whereby We may Compare the Substance with the Shadow. […], London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 233:
          [T]hou maiſt freely lay open thy mind to him [Jesus] in prayer, vvhat ever diſtreſs or vvant thou art in come to him in prayer and thou needſt not fear he vvill vvell knovv vvhat it is thou ſupplicateſt him about; […]
        • 1799 October, J. S., “The Dispositions which a Reader of the Holy Scriptures ought to Have, that He may Reap the Fruits of His Studies and Meditations”, in The Aurora; or, The Dawn of Genuine Truth: Being a Repository of Spiritual, Rational, and Useful Knowledge. […], volume I, number VII, London: […] Aurora Press, […], published November 1799, →OCLC, page 267:
          [I]t is from him only [Jesus] that man hath illumination, which he surely will receive, if in true humiliation of heart he supplicateth Him in the love of truth, and for the sake of living according to what the Divine Truth teacheth; […]
    2. To ask or request (something) humbly and sincerely, especially from a person in authority; to beg or entreat for.
      Synonym: solicit
      to supplicate blessings on Christian efforts to spread the gospel
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To humbly request for something, especially to someone in a position of authority; to beg, to beseech, to entreat.
      Synonyms: sifflicate, (obsolete) thig
      1. (specifically, Oxford University) Of a member of the university, or an alumnus or alumna of another university seeking a degree ad eundem: to formally request that an academic degree be awarded to oneself.
        • 1691, [Anthony Wood], “ROBERT TALBOT”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volume I (Extending to the 16th Year of King Charles I. Dom. 1640), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […], →OCLC, column 87:
          He [Robert Talbot] vvas educated […] in Logicals and Philoſophicals in New Coll[ege] of vvhich he became Fellovv (after he had ſerved tvvo Years of probation) an[no] 1523. and left it 5 Years after, being then only Bach[elor] of Arts, ſupplicated for the Degree of Maſter 1529, but not admitted, as I can find in the Regiſter of that time.
        • 1691, [Anthony Wood], “Fasti Oxonienses”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volume I (Extending to the 16th Year of King Charles I. Dom. 1640), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […], →OCLC, column 642:
          Incorporations, Or ſuch vvho have taken a Degree in another Univerſity, and have been embodied or taken into the boſom of this of Oxon., and have enjoyed the ſame Liberties and Privileges, as if they had taken their Degree here. […] Rich[ard] Kirkby Maſt[er] of Arts of this Univ[ersity] and Bach[elor] of Divin[ity] of the Univ[ersity] of Paris, vvas incorporated Bach. of Div. of this Univerſity.—VVhich being done, he ſupplicated the ſame day to be admitted or licenſed to proceed in Divinity; but vvhether granted it appears not.

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. “supplicāten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. “supplicate, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “supplicate, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Italian

Verb

supplicate

  1. inflection of supplicare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Participle

supplicate f pl

  1. feminine plural of supplicato

Latin

Verb

supplicāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of supplicō
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