[‘ The action of exposing a person or thing to danger; the condition of being exposed to danger; danger, hazard, etc.']
Forms: 15 *periclitacion*, 15 *periclitatione*, 16 18 *periclitation*.
Etymology: < classical Latin /perīclitātiōn-, /perīclitātiō experiment, test, in post-classical Latin also peril, danger (from 10th cent. in British sources), shipwreck (1342 in a British source) < /perīclitāt-, past participial stem of /perīclitārī/ periclitate v. + /-iō/ -ion suffix1. Compare Middle French, French /périclitation shipwreck (1390 as pereclitation), ruin, loss (1486), condition of being in danger (1838). Compare slightly earlier periclitate adj. and later periclitate v.
/Obs./ (rare after 17th cent.).
*1.* The action of exposing a person or thing to danger; the condition of being exposed to danger; danger, hazard, etc.
1527 in /State Papers Henry VIII/ (1849) VI. 585 To the danger and periclitacion of Cristes feithe.
1599 A. M. tr. O. Gaebelkhover /Bk. Physicke/ 49/1 It may without anye periclitatione be administrede to them.
1625 King Charles I /Answer xix. Propositions Parl./ in /Wks./ (1662) I. 361 Your own Periclitation necessitates an early Resolution.
1659 H. L’Estrange /Alliance Divine Offices/ 316 Corporal maladies, which are accompanied with great periclitation.
*2.* An experiment, esp. one involving risk; a trial, a venture.
1658 E. Phillips /New World Eng. Words/, /Periclitation/, (lat.) an adventuring, hazarding, or endangering.
1670 E. Maynwaring /Pharmacopœian Physician’s Repos./ 81 This Prescription..is grounded upon some former periclitations.
1897 W. D. Howells /Landlord Lion’s Head/ 227 During his social and financial periclitations in a region wholly inconceivable to her.