In Roman law, a pollicitation was an unaccepted offer or informal promise that was made enforceable by legislation. In English, the archaic usage meant “the result of promising,” but the more modern legal context comes back to unaccepted offers. It comes from the Latin verb “pollicitari,” meaning “to promise.” It’s not common in modern vocabulary outside of legal contexts, but if you want to pull out some impressive terminology during haggling, keep this one in your back pocket.