Solicit

How to spell solicit

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce solicit

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does solicit mean?

1. verbTo ask for or try to obtain something, such as money, support, or information, from someone.
2. verbTo approach or accost someone in a public place to offer or sell services, often in a legal context.

Solicit in a sentence

• The charity sent letters to solicit donations from local businesses.

• The bylaw makes it an offence to solicit customers on the pavement outside the shops.

• Managers should solicit feedback from staff before changing the policy.

• Street traders are not permitted to solicit passers-by near the station entrance.

Where does solicit come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb sollicitare, which meant to disturb, agitate, or urge into action. It was built from sollicitus, an adjective for someone agitated or anxious, which in turn combined sollus, meaning whole or entire, with a form of ciere, meaning to set in motion or rouse. The literal sense was therefore something like thoroughly stirred up, and that idea of vigorous prodding survives in the modern notion of pressing someone for money, votes, or favours. English took the word in through Old French solliciter in the fifteenth century, at first in the sense of managing or being concerned about an affair. A useful spelling reminder is that the Latin had a double l in sollicitare but only single letters arrived in English: solicit keeps just one l and one c, which is precisely where writers tend to slip and double a consonant that should stay single.

How the word is built

• sol- (from sollus: whole, entire)
• -licit (from citare/ciere: to set in motion, rouse)
• verb form