Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
BESEECH
bid, beseech, entreat, adjure, press, conjure
(verb) ask for or request earnestly; “The prophet bid all people to become good persons”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
beseech (third-person singular simple present beseeches, present participle beseeching, simple past and past participle besought or beseeched)
to beg or implore (a person)
to request or beg for
Noun
beseech (plural beseeches)
(archaic) A request.
Anagrams
• Beeches, beeches, beseche
Source: Wiktionary
Be*seech", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Besought; p. pr. & vb. n. Beseeching.] Etym: [OE. bisechen, biseken (akin to G. besuchen to visit); pref. be- + sechen, seken, to seek. See Seek.]
1. To ask or entreat with urgency; to supplicate; to implore. I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts. Shak. But Eve . . . besought his peace. Milton.
Syn.
– To beg; to crave.
– To Beseech, Entreat, Solicit, Implore, Supplicate. These words agree in marking that sense of want which leads men to beg some favor. To solicit is to make a request, with some degree of earnestness and repetition, of one whom we address as a superior. To entreat implies greater urgency, usually enforced by adducing reasons or arguments. To beseech is still stronger, and belongs rather to the language of poetry and imagination. To implore denotes increased fervor of entreaty, as addressed either to equals or superiors. To supplicate expresses the extreme of entreaty, and usually implies a state of deep humiliation. Thus, a captive supplicates a conqueror to spare his life. Men solicit by virtue of their interest with another; they entreat in the use of reasoning and strong representations; they beseech with importunate earnestness; they implore from a sense of overwhelming distress; they supplicate with a feeling of the most absolute inferiority and dependence.
Be*seech", n.
Definition: Solicitation; supplication. [Obs. or Poetic] Shak.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
1 June 2025
BACKFIRE
(verb) come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect; “Your comments may backfire and cause you a lot of trouble”; “the political movie backlashed on the Democrats”
Coffee Trivia
