Other forms: entreaties
An entreaty is an earnest and humble request. Ignore the entreaty, despite her entreaties, a final entreaty.
It is formal and literary, and it carries the position of the person asking: an entreaty comes from below, from somebody with no power to demand. The verb entreat is the same word, and both belong to older writing rather than to speech.
1nounentreatyAn earnest and humble request.
“Ignoring his mother's tearful entreaties, he packed his bag and left for the city.”
entreaty is a request.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁én
Latin
tractāre
Old French
entraictier — to have a conversation with (someone); to concern oneself with (something)
Middle French
entraiter
Anglo-Norman
entraiter
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)
English
entreat
English, today
entreaty
Built from
From entreat + -y. entreat The 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- + traiter (“to be concerned with (something); to treat (someone) in a specified way”) (from Latin tractāre, the of tractō (“to handle, manage; to drag, haul”), from trahō (“to drag, pull; etc.”) (see that entry for the further etymology) + -tō). The is derived from Late Middle English entrete (“agreement; negotiation; treatment of a subject in discourse”), from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA