1. regretfully acknowledging or excusing an offense or failure: "she was very apologetic about the whole incident"
▪ of the nature of a formal defense or justification of something such as a theory or religious doctrine:"the apologetic proposition that production for profit is the same thing as production for need"
Word Originlate Middle English (as a noun denoting a formal justification): from French apologétique or late Latin apologeticus, from Greek apologētikos, from apologeisthei ‘speak in one's own defense’, from apologia (see apology). The current sense dates from the mid 19th century.
