Other forms: supplicants
A supplicant is somebody who begs humbly for something. A kneeling supplicant, treated as supplicants, the supplicant's plea.
The humility is the point, and the word is used bitterly of anybody made to ask for what should be theirs. The Latin means bending the knee, which is exactly the posture.
1nounsupplicantSomebody who begs humbly for something.
“The king sat on his throne while supplicants knelt before him, asking for mercy.”
supplicant is a petitioner.
Latin supplicare means to kneel down, from sub, under, plus plicare, to fold or bend.
Latin
supplicans — supplicating, bowing down
English, today
supplicant
Built from
From Latin supplicans (“supplicating, bowing down”), from supplico (“kneel, bow down, request”), from sub- (“lower”) + plico (“fold”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA