Sollicitaient

Sollicitaient is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the French verb solliciter. The verb solliciter derives from the Latin word sollicitare, which means to disturb or agitate. In modern French, solliciter can be translated as to solicit, to request, to urge, or to seek. The imperfect tense in French is used to describe ongoing actions or states in the past, habitual actions in the past, or to set a scene in a narrative. Therefore, "sollicitaient" refers to an action that was being done by multiple people or entities in the past, or an action that was habitually performed by them.

For example, one might say "Les citoyens sollicitaient le gouvernement pour obtenir de l'aide" which translates to "The citizens were requesting aid from the government" or "The citizens used to request aid from the government." The context in which "sollicitaient" is used would determine the precise nuance of its meaning. It implies a sustained or repeated act of seeking or asking by a group. It is a grammatical form and does not have an independent meaning outside of its conjugation and the base verb's definition.