Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—S

Supplication

This word has greatly changed its original meaning. The Romans used it for a thanksgiving after a signal victory (Livy, iii. 63). (“His rebus gestis, supplicatio a senatu decreta est” [Caesar: Bell. Gall., ii.].) The word means the act of folding the knees (sub-plico). We now use the word for begging or entreating something.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Sure as Demoivre
Supper of Trimalchio
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