appeach

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman apescher, rare variant of Old French empescher, from Latin impedicō.

Verb

appeach (third-person singular simple present appeaches, present participle appeaching, simple past and past participle appeached)

1. (archaic) To charge (someone) with a crime; to impeach. [15th–17th c.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “vij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X (in Middle English):

     Thenne was Kynge Marke wonderly wrothe / and wold haue slayne Amant / but he and the two squyers held them to gyders / and sette nought by his malyce / whanne Kynge marke sawe he myght not be reuenged on them / he said thus vnto the Knyght Amant / wete thou wel / and thou apoeche me of treason / I shalle therof defende me afore Kynge Arthur

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For when Cymochles saw the fowle reproch, / Which them appeached, prickt with guilty shame, / And inward griefe, he fiercely gan approch […].

   • 1958, T. H. White, The Once and Future King, New York: Berkley Publishing, Book 4, Chapter 5, p. 557,^[1]

     “ […] When the riches are equal, we might say that the luckier side wins, as if by tossing a coin. Now, are you two sure, if you did appeach Queen Guenever of treason, that your side would be the luckier one?”

Derived terms

• appeacher
• appeachment