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==Etymology==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from Anglo-French, from [[Latin]] petition-, petitio, from petere to seek, request
*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Century 14th century]
==Definitions==
*1 : an [[earnest]] request : entreaty
*2 a : a [[formal]] [[written]] request made to an official [[person]] or [[organized]] body (as a [[court]])
:b : a [[document]] embodying such a [[formal]] [[written]] request
*3 : something asked or requested
==Description==
A '''petition''' is a request to [[change]] something, most commonly made to a [[government]] official or [[public]] [[entity]]. Petitions to a [[deity]] are a form of [[prayer]].

In the colloquial sense, a petition is a [[document]] addressed to some official and signed by numerous [[individuals]]. A petition may be [[oral]] rather than [[written]], and in this era may be [[transmitted]] via the [[Internet]]. The term also has a specific [[meaning]] in the [[legal]] [[profession]] as a request, directed to a [[court]] or [[administrative]] [[tribunal]], seeking some sort of relief such as a court order.

A petition can also be the title of a legal pleading that initiates a case to be heard before a [[court]]. The initial pleading in a civil lawsuit that seeks only [[money]] (damages) might be titled (in most U.S. courts) a complaint; an initial pleading in a lawsuit seeking non-monetary or "equitable" relief such as a request for a writ of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandamus mandamus] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus habeas corpus], or for custody of a [[child]] or for probate of a will, would instead be termed a petition.
*Early history
In pre-modern [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_China Imperial China] petitions were always sent to an Office of Transmission (Tongzheng si or 通政司) where [[court]] [[secretaries]] would read petitions aloud to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_China emperor]. Petitions could be sent by anybody, from a [[scholar]]-official to a common farmer, although the petitions were more likely [[read]] to the emperor if they were persuasive enough to impeach questionable and corrupt local officials from office. When petitions arrived to the throne, multiple copies were made of the [[original]] and stored with the Office of Supervising Secretaries before the original written petition was sent to the emperor.

Petitions were a common form of protest and request to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_House_of_Commons British House of Commons] in the 18th and 19th centuries, the largest being the Great/People's Charter, or petition of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartists Chartists]. They are still presented in small numbers.

The Petition Clause of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution First Amendment] to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Constitution U.S. Constitution] guarantees the right of the people "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The right to petition has been held to include the right to file lawsuits against the [[government]].

[[Category: Law]]