supplicate

verb

Etymology: 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”)).

1. To make a humble request to (someone, especially a person in authority); to beg, to beseech, to entreat.

   “"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.”

   “Peter nobly acknowledgeth error, ſuſpecteth an interfering Devil, and ſupplicateth his Reader— […]”

2. To make a humble request to (someone, especially a person in authority); to beg, to beseech, to entreat.

   “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.”

3. To make a humble request to (someone, especially a person in authority); to beg, to beseech, to entreat.

   “to supplicate the Deity”

   “[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; […]”

4. To ask or request (something) humbly and sincerely, especially from a person in authority; to beg or entreat for.

   “to supplicate blessings on Christian efforts to spread the gospel”

   “[A]nd vvhat art thou that ſupplicateſt my aſſiſtance?”

5. To humbly request for something, especially to someone in a position of authority; to beg, to beseech, to entreat.

   “Thus alſo the Church of Svveueland ſupplicateth to the Emperour of Germanie, if ſo bee that in time, vvee may not haue opportunitie for a generall Councell, yet at the lest your Maiestie may appoint a prouinciall aſſembly, &c.”

   “A man cannot ſometimes brooke to Supplicate or Beg: […] But all theſe Things, are Gracefull in a Frends Mouth, vvhich are bluſhing in a Mans Ovvne.”

6. To humbly request for something, especially to someone in a position of authority; to beg, to beseech, to entreat.

   “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.”

   “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.”