Solicité

Solicité is commonly regarded as a non-standard spelling of the French past participle sollicité, which comes from the verb solliciter. Solliciter means to request, to solicit, to seek to obtain something, or to apply for a service or a job. The past participle sollicité forms the perfect tenses (il a été sollicité, elle a été sollicitée) and agrees in gender and number (sollicité / sollicitée, sollicités / sollicitée s).

Etymology and evolution: the verb solliciter descends from Latin sollicitare, from sollicitus meaning anxious or disturbed, via Old French. The sense broadened from distress or agitation to prompting action: to solicit a response, to ask for information, to invite offers, or to apply for a position.

Usage and nuance: solliciter is common in formal and administrative contexts. It can mean to request information or aid (solliciter l’aide de quelqu’un), to apply for a job (solliciter un emploi), or to invite bids or proposals (solliciter des propositions). The form sollicité/sollicitée is used as a participle or as an adjective, e.g., un document sollicité, une demande sollicitée. In some contexts, the term also carries a sense of urging or prompting someone to respond.

Noun form and related terms: the corresponding noun is sollicitation, meaning the act of requesting or soliciting; its plural is sollicitations. In procurement contexts, “sollicitations” refers to calls for bids or proposals.

Notes: the orthography solicité (with a single l) is generally considered incorrect in standard French; the correct past participle is sollicité.