Other forms: pleadings
Pleading means begging earnestly for something. A pleading look, a pleading tone, pleading with him.
It describes voice and expression as much as words — a pleading look asks without speaking. In law, pleadings are the formal written statements of each party's case, and a plea is what a defendant enters. Note plead, whose past tense is pleaded in Britain and often pled in America and Scotland; and special pleading, meaning an argument that applies a rule only to your own case.
1adjectivepleadingBegging earnestly for something.
“She ignored his pleading voice and put the phone down.”
2nounstatementsThe formal written statements in a case.
“The lawyers exchanged their pleadings months before the trial began.”
pleading is an earnest begging.
Old French
plaider — to plead, offer a plea
Middle English
pleden
English
plead
English, today
pleading
Built from
by surface analysis, plead + -ing. plead comes from Middle English pleden, plaiden, from Old French plaider (“to plead, offer a plea”), from plait, from Medieval Latin placitum (“a decree, sentence, suit, plea, etc.", in Classical Latin -, "an opinion, determination, prescription, order; literally, that which is pleasing, pleasure”), neuter of placitus, past participle of placeō (“to please”). Cognate with Spanish pleitear (“to litigate, take to court”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA