What does "PEAL" mean in the words "Appeal" and "Repeal"?

Question

Hi all! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration!

So "peal" comes from Latin pellere, which means "to drive, push." But in checking on sites like etymonline.com, nowhere do I see the meaning of this root as "to call upon." Can someone explain how this came to be?

Or am I misunderstanding the root's meaning. Is it rather that to appeal means "to push (a request) towards another." Is this the correct understanding?

In the word repel, we see that the meaning is "to call back." Again, I'm confused about how the original "to push" of pellere turned into "to call." Could someone please explain this? Or is it that repeal can be also understood as "to push something back." What is the correct understanding? Thank you!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

See https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/indoeurop.html

pel-⁵

Section II 1a

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Shay SinghOr am I misunderstanding the root's meaning. Is it rather that to appeal means "to push (a request) towards another." Is this the correct understanding?

That does not seem plausible. You have to be careful in tenuous interpretations of words that go back to Anglo-Saxon and Indo-European origins.

The words that lend themselves to the root-and-affix analysis are relatively newer additions from Greek and Latin (also Old French being an offshoot of Latin).

The main reason is that the Anglo-Saxon invaders c. 500 CE into a Celtic-speaking population were by and large illiterate. There is no substantial written record of English for hundreds of years when English was developing from a mélange of Celtic, Old German, Old Norse and other native tongues.

Latin and Greek, on the other hand has a rich heritage of writing, so sources are readily available for linguists to trace and attest meaning.

Also, word meanings drift and change considerably over time.

From CJ's linked dictionary:

Extended form *pel?₂-.

Present stem *pelna-.
1. https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=appeal, https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=peal, https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=rappel, https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=repeal, from Latin appellare, "to drive to," address, entreat, appeal, call (ad-, to; see https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/indoeurop.html#ad-);

Another source suggests that "https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=peal" was the ringing of church bells, calling or summoning people to the services. Also, the ringing was caused by the clapper beating against the body of the bell, thus, involves the actions: to thrust, strike, or drive.

But that definition could only go back to after Christianity was well-established in England, around 700 CE. The few people who were literate were churchmen, like Bede, who wrote in Latin, not in the vernacular.

What does "PEAL" mean in the words "Appeal" and "Repeal"?

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