appello

Appello, appellare, appellavi, appellatum. First conjugation, from ad plus an old sense of pello, to drive towards, hence to accost someone. When it names, it takes a double accusative: hunc locum Romam appellant, "they call this place Rome". In the passive both accusatives become nominative, haec insula Sicilia appellatur.

The trap is a second verb spelled the same in the first person: appello, appellere, appuli, appulsum, third conjugation, meaning to drive to or bring to land, as in navem ad litus appellere. The infinitive settles it, appellare or appellere. The legal sense, to appeal to a higher authority, is genuinely Roman and passes intact into English appeal, appellant and appellation.