English
implore
Implore comes from Middle French implorer, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)- ‘to swim, flow’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₃(w)-‘to swim, flow’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600implorer
- Englishearliest quotation 1590implore
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₃(w)-‘to swim, flow’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600implorer
- Englishearliest quotation 1590implore
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto V: “Suddenly out of his delightfull dreame / The man…”
The story
The verb is borrowed from Middle French implorer (modern French implorer (‘to beg, plead, implore’)), or directly from its etymon Latin implōrāre, the present active infinitive of implōrō (‘to beseech, entreat, implore; to appeal to, pray to’), from im- (a variant of in- (intensifying prefix)) + plōrō (‘to cry out; to complain, deplore, lament’) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)- (‘to flow; to swim’)).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)- ‘to swim, flow’
Today it means
verb To beg or plead for (something) earnestly or urgently; to beseech.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)- / implore