Etymologically
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appellate

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Pronunciation

  • /əˈpɛlət/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin appellātus (“appealed to, summoned”),[2][3][4][5] the past participle of appellō (“to address, call upon, appeal to, name”),[4][6][7] the source of appeal,[4][3][8] with the English suffix -ate.[3][8] Etymonline analyses the Latin verb as formed from ad- (“to”) and pellō (“to beat, push, drive”), from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”), and suggests that it was perhaps first a sailors' term for steering a ship to a landing.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Appealed against, of a person or a sentence: 1726, in John Ayliffe's Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani, which also used it as a noun for the person appealed against.[2][3][9] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date this sense to late Middle English,[10][11] and Merriam-Webster gives 1765 as the first known use of the current sense.[6]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) knew the word only as a noun, "the person appealed against", quoting Ayliffe.[9] The sense "appealed against" was rare and died out in the early 18th century,[2][10] and the current sense, "taking cognizance of appeals", is recorded from 1768, in Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England.[2][11] It is now a legal term, used chiefly of courts that review the decisions of lower courts.[5][6][12] A rare verb appellate, "to call, to name", formed from the participial stem of the Latin verb, is recorded from 1768.[2][10]

Timeline

  • 1726 – appealed against (obsolete); as a noun, the person appealed against.[2][3]
  • 1768 – appealed to; dealing with appeals, in Blackstone.[2]
  • 1768 – verb, to call, to name (rare).[2][10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (law) Relating to appeals.[5][12][6]
  2. (law) Of a court: having the power to review cases on appeal and to affirm, reverse or modify the decisions of lower courts: The appellate judges overturned the verdict.[5][6][2]
  3. (obsolete) Appealed against; accused.[2][10]

Noun

  1. (obsolete) The person against whom an appeal is brought.[2][9]

Word family

  • nonappellate
  • appeal
  • appellant
  • appellation
  • appellative

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West