Appellate

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /əˈpɛlət/

Definitions

1. Relating to or dealing with legal appeals, where a higher court reviews decisions made by a lower court
2. Concerning the legal processes that allow for the challenging and review of lower court rulings by higher courts through appeals
3. Connected with the process where a higher court examines the decisions of a lower court to determine if legal errors occurred

Etymology: Latin "appellare" meant "to address, call upon, or appeal to," and its past participle "appellatus" gave English the word "appellate." The Latin verb is built from "ad," meaning "to," and "pellere," meaning "to drive" or "to push," so the original image is of driving a matter toward someone with authority. In Roman usage, to appeal was to call on a superior for a hearing, and that sense of directing a case upward to a higher authority is what the English adjective carries forward. The Latin root "pellere" also gave English "expel" and "impulse," so "appellate" shares a family with words about pushing and driving. The modern meaning, concerning the review of lower court rulings by higher courts, is a narrowing of that broad Latin idea of calling on a superior to hear a matter.

Synonyms: revisory, appellate court