Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Appeal in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels appeal as verb. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913verb
Appeal

[OE. appelen, apelen, to appeal, accuse, OF. appeler, fr. L. appellare to approach, address, invoke, summon, call, name; akin to appellere to drive to; ad + pellere to drive. See Pulse, and cf. Peal.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordappeal
Part of speechverb
Historical etymology[OE. appelen, apelen, to appeal, accuse, OF. appeler, fr. L. appellare to approach, address, invoke, summon, call, name; akin to appellere to drive to; ad + pellere to drive. See Pulse, and cf. Peal.]
Selected historical definitionTo make application for the removal of (a cause) from an inferior to a superior judge or court for a rehearing or review on account of alleged injustice or illegality in the trial below. We say, the cause was appealed from an inferior court.
Signed record IDwebster1913-appeal-verb-f005d204cfb1
Source locatorCIDE.A, paragraph 9962; Gutenberg eBook 660
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 660Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "appeal" is labeled verb. Its etymology is recorded as: "[OE. appelen, apelen, to appeal, accuse, OF. appeler, fr. L. appellare to approach, address, invoke, summon, call, name; akin to appellere to drive to; ad + pellere to drive. See Pulse, and cf. Peal.]" The selected historical definition says: "To make application for the removal of (a cause) from an inferior to a superior judge or court for a rehearing or review on account of alleged injustice or illegality in the trial below. We say, the cause was appealed from an inferior court."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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