suppliant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English suppliaunt,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman supliant, suppliant and Middle French suppliant,^[5][4][6] the present participle, used as an adjective and a noun, of supplier (“to plead humbly, entreat”).^[5][4][7] In Old French the participle appears as Old French sospleiant about 1175,^[5] and the Middle English Dictionary and Etymonline take the English word from a variant of soupleiant.^[2][3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the mid-12th century, with the senses "to bow down, submit" and "to beseech, petition".^[8] Klein explains the Middle French verb as souploier refashioned after its source, Latin supplicō (“to beg, beseech”),^[9] which is from supplex (“humbly begging”).^[9][10][11] Skeat explained supplex as "bending under or down",^[11] and Klein thought it probably contains sub- and the stem of plācō (“to appease”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A petitioner, especially one who applies formally to an official: about 1422, in a petition in the Public Record Office.^[5] Barnhart's first record is of 1429, in the Rolls of Parliament,^[4] and the Middle English Dictionary quotes the Paston Letters for about 1460: "Your seid suppleaunt bought of Sire John Kyrtelyng..a place".^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun began mostly as a legal term, for someone who brings an appeal or petition at law.^[3][2] The wider sense, a humble petitioner, as in prayer, dates from the mid-16th century, and Barnhart finds it in a translation of the Psalms of 1549–62.^[3][4] The adjective followed in 1550, of a person who pleads humbly,^[5][6] and since 1574 it could also describe what shows such pleading.^[5] Johnson (1755) entered only the adjective, as "entreating; beseeching; precatory; submissive", and quoted Milton's "suppliant knee".^[12] The OED notes that the word was sometimes stressed on the second syllable in early use.^[5] Supplicant, recorded from the 1590s, comes straight from the Latin participle.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1422 – noun, a petitioner, especially to someone in authority.^[5] Barnhart's first record is of 1549–62, in a translation of the Psalms.^[4]
• 1550 – adjective, humbly pleading, in a translation of St Augustine.^[5][6] Barnhart's first record is before 1586, in Sidney's Arcadia.^[4]
• 1574 – adjective, expressing supplication.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who asks humbly and earnestly, especially of someone in power; a petitioner or supplicant: The suppliants waited for hours outside the palace gates.^[6][13][5]

Adjective

1. Asking humbly and earnestly: a suppliant crowd at the governor's door.^[6][5]
2. Expressing entreaty or supplication: She raised her hands in a suppliant gesture.^[13][6][5]

Word family

• suppliance
• suppliantly
• suppliantness

Related words

• supplicant
• supplicate
• supplication
• supplicatory
• supple

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford also record a rare adjective suppliant, "supplementary", formed from the verb supply and known only from Shakespeare's Cymbeline;^[5][7] the OED has a further one, of about 1632, formed from another verb supply.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins