English
entreat
Entreat comes from Middle English entreten ‘to deal with (someone) in a specified way’, from Latin tractō ‘to tug, drag or haul’, and ultimately from trahō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag, pull’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtractōas tractāre‘to tug, drag or haul’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600entraiter
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400entraiter
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500entreten‘to deal with (someone) in a specified way’
- Englishearliest quotation 1523entreat
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtrahō‘to drag, pull’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtractōas tractāre‘to tug, drag or haul’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600entraiter
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400entraiter
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500entreten‘to deal with (someone) in a specified way’
- Englishearliest quotation 1523entreat
Earliest quotation: 1523, Johan Froyssart [i.e.: “[T]hey entreated the ſayd companyons and offred them golde⸝…”
The story
The verb is derived from Late Middle English entreten (‘to deal with (someone) in a specified way; to concern oneself with (something); to deal with or give an account of (a topic); to engage in negotiation; to intercede for (someone); to plead with (someone)’), from Anglo-Norman entraiter, entretier (‘to concern oneself with (something); to deal with (someone) in a specified manner; to have a conversation with (someone); to negotiate (with someone, or about something)’), Middle French entraiter, entraictier, and Old French entraictier (‘to have a conversation with (someone); to concern oneself with (something)’), from en- (prefix meaning ‘in, into’) + traiter (‘to be concerned with (something); to treat (someone) in a specified way’) (from Latin tractāre, the present active infinitive of tractō (‘to handle, manage; to drag, haul’), from trahō (‘to drag, pull; etc.’) (see that entry for the further etymology) + -tō (frequentative suffix)).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ‘to run, to drag, to pull’
draw, train, draft, drag, extraction, abstraction, contraction, draught, subtraction, abstractly, 48 more
through Latin trahō ‘to drag, pull’
contract, attractive, portrait, abstract, extract, attraction, distraction, traction, tractor, distract, trait, retreat, tram, retract, tractable, trattoria, 31 more
through Latin tractō ‘to tug, drag or haul’
Today it means
verb To ask earnestly or beg for (something, such as a benefit or favour).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin trahō / entreat