different between avowal vs plea

English

Etymology

avow +? -al

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a??l

Noun

avowal (countable and uncountable, plural avowals)

1. An open declaration of affirmation or admission of knowledge.
   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 11, ^[1]

     Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement, and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her, immediately followed.

   • 1920, Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Book I, Chapter I, ^[2]

     It was only that afternoon that May Welland had let him guess that she “cared” (New York’s consecrated phrase of maiden avowal), and already his imagination, leaping ahead of the engagement ring, the betrothal kiss and the march from Lohengrin, pictured her at his side in some scene of old European witchery.

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 5,

     “That's because I love you,” said Nick, singsong with the truth.

     Leo took in this chance for an echoing avowal; it was a brief deep silence, as tactical as it was undiscussable.

Synonyms

• averral
• acknowledgement
• testimony

Related terms

• avow
• avowed
• avowable
• avowry
• vow

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English ple, from Old French plait, plaid, from Medieval Latin placitum (“a decree, sentence, suit, plea, etc., Latin an opinion, determination, prescription, order; literally, that which is pleasing, pleasure”), neuter of placitus, past participle of placere (“to please”). Cognate with Spanish pleito (“lawsuit, suit”). Doublet of placit and placate. See also please, pleasure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pli?/
• Rhymes: -i?

Noun

plea (plural pleas)

1. An appeal, petition, urgent prayer or entreaty.

   a plea for mercy

2. An excuse; an apology.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost IV.393

     Necessity, the tyrant’s plea.
3. That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification.
4. (law) That which is alleged by a party in support of his cause.
5. (law) An allegation of fact in a cause, as distinguished from a demurrer.
6. (law) The defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand.
7. (law) A cause in court; a lawsuit; as, the Court of Common Pleas.
   • 1782, "An Act establishing a Supreme Judicial Court within the Commonwealth", quoted in The Constitutional History of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Frank Washburn Grinnell, 1917, page 434

     they or any three of them shall be a Court and have cognizance of pleas real, personal, and mixed.

Usage notes

In 19th-century U.K. law, that which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant’s plea. In chancery practice, a plea is a special answer showing or relying upon one or more things as a cause why the suit should be either dismissed, delayed, or barred. In criminal practice, the plea is the defendant’s formal answer to the indictment or information presented against him/her.

Related terms

• pleas of the crown
• plead
• pleasant
• please
• pleasurable
• pleasure

Synonyms

• plaidoyer

Translations

Verb

plea (third-person singular simple present pleas, present participle pleaing, simple past and past participle pleaed)

1. (chiefly England regional, Scotland) To plead; to argue. [from 15th c.]
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:

     With my riches, my unhappiness was increased tenfold; and here, with another great acquisition of property, for which I had pleaed, and which I had gained in a dream, my miseries and difficulties were increasing.

Further reading

• plea in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• plea in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• plea at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Alep, LEAP, Lape, Leap, Peal, e-pal, leap, pale, pale-, peal, pela