1533, "defense, justification," from L.L.
apologia, from Gk.
apologia "a speech in defense," from
apologeisthai "to speak in one's defense," from
apologos "an account, story," from
apo- "from, off" (see
apo-) +
logos "speech." The original Eng. sense of "self-justification" yielded a meaning "frank expression of regret for wrong done," first recorded 1594, but it was not the main sense until 18c. The old sense tends to emerge in Latin form
apologia (first attested 1784), especially since J.H. Newman's
"Apologia pro Vita Sua" (1864). The Gk. equivalent of
apologize (1725 in the modern sense of "acknowledge and express regret"),
apologizesthai, meant simply "to give an account."
[uh-pol-uh-jee] 
) a dialogue by Plato, centering on Socrates' defense before the tribunal that condemned him to death.