means A formal written request, usually signed by many people, asking an authority or institution to do or change something.

from From Latin petitio, 'a seeking, a request,' from the verb petere, 'to seek, ask, or aim at' — the same restless root that drives appetite (a reaching toward food), compete (seeking together), and impetus (a rushing at). It came into English through Old French in the medieval period, when subjects literally sought favor or redress from a sovereign; the formal sense of a signed collective request grew naturally from that act of asking power for something it would rather not give.