suppliant

English

WOTD – 28 February 2007

Etymology

From French suppliant, present participle of supplier. Doublet of supplicant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌpliənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

suppliant (comparative more suppliant, superlative most suppliant)

1. Entreating with humility; supplicant.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     to bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee

   • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 20:

     Some plaques formed part of a mosaic that covered human life with its varied scenes of peace and war. Here we have warriors, the Cretan erect, and his darker-skinned enemy prostrate and suppliant.

   • 1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, Sophocles’ King Oedipus: A Version of the Modern Stage, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Oedipus, King of my country, you can see our ages who are before your door; some it may be too young for such a journey, and some too old, Priests of Zeus such as I, and these chosen young men; while the rest of the people crowd the market-places with their suppliant branches, for the city stumbles towards death, hardly able to raise up its head

2. Supplying; auxiliary.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:

     your levy Must be suppliant

Translations

entreating with humility

• Bulgarian: умолителен (umolitelen)
• French: suppliant (fr) m
• Irish: aisceánach, impíoch
• Latin: supplex
• Polish: błagający, błagalny (pl), proszalny (pl)
• Portuguese: suplicante (pt)
• Russian: проси́тельный (ru) (prosítelʹnyj), умоля́ющий (ru) (umoljájuščij) (begging)
• Spanish: suplicante (es)

Noun

suppliant (plural suppliants)

1. One who pleads or requests earnestly.

   Synonyms: beseecher, petitioner, supplicant

   • 1629, Thucydides, “The First Booke”, in Thomas Hobbes, transl., Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre […], London: […] Hen[ry] Seile, […], →OCLC, page 52:

     In reuerence therefore of the hopes vvhich the Grecians haue repoſed in you, and of the preſence of Iupiter Olympius, in vvhoſe Temple here, vve are in a manner ſuppliants to you, receiue the Mitylenians into league, and ayde vs.

   • 1963, Philip Vellacott, transl., Medea, Penguin Classics, translation of original by Euripides, page 39:

     I touch your beard as a suppliant, embrace your knees, imploring you to have pity on my wretchedness.

Translations

one who pleads or requests earnestly

• Bulgarian: проси́тел (bg) m (prosítel)
• Finnish: anova (fi)
• French: suppliant (fr)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἱκέτης m (hikétēs)

• Irish: iarrthóir m, idirghuítheoir m, impíoch m
• Italian: supplice (it)
• Polish: suplikant m
• Russian: проси́тель (ru) m (prosítelʹ), проси́тельница (ru) f (prosítelʹnica)
• Welsh: gweddïwr m

Related terms

• suppliance
• suppliantly
• supplicant
• supplicate
• supplicatingly
• supplication
• supplicator
• supplicatory

French

Participle

suppliant

1. present participle of supplier

Adjective

suppliant (feminine suppliante, masculine plural suppliants, feminine plural suppliantes)

1. suppliant, begging, pleading, imploring

Noun

suppliant m (plural suppliants, feminine suppliante)

1. supplicant

Further reading

• “suppliant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.