RFC 9110, "HTTP Semantics", June 2022

Errata ID: 7530
Status: Rejected
Type: Editorial
Publication Format(s) : HTML
Reported By: Philippe Cloutier
Date Reported: 2023-05-29
Rejected by: RFC Editor
Date Rejected: 2023-07-07

Section 15.5.2. says:

The 401 (Unauthorized) status code indicates that the request has not
been applied because it lacks valid authentication credentials for
the target resource.

It should say:

The 401 (Unauthorized) status code indicates that the request has not
been processed because it lacks valid authentication credentials for
the target resource.

Notes:

"applying a request" is not a standard expression. Usually, requests are "treated", "granted" or "processed".

This phrasing was imported in Apache Tomcat; thanks to Mark Thomas for pointing out it came from this RFC.
--VERIFIER NOTES--
A method is applied to a resource to have an effect that results in a response. Any web search on "method applied" will show you that it is quite common in standard English. The request has already been processed, at least partially, in order to make a decision that resulted in a 401 error

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