allay

allay¹ calm, relieve

Etymology

The verb meaning to calm is inherited from Middle English aleien, also aleggen and alaien,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ālecgan (“to lay down, lay aside”),^{[2][4][5][6][3]} formed from ā- and lecgan (“to lay”), the source of lay.^[4][5][7][3] It is a common Germanic compound,^[7] from Proto-Germanic *uzlagjaną (“to lay down”),^[1][5] with cognates in Old High German irleggen, now German erlegen, and Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (uslagjan, “to lay on”).^[8][5][7] The double l is not etymological: it arose from association with words from Latin formed with the prefix ad-,^[8][7][5] and is first seen in the 17th century.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put down: Barnhart dates the Old English verb to about 725, in Beowulf,^[5] and the OED's first records of it are in Ælfric, for laying down or aside, annulling a law and overthrowing a person or people, and also for quelling a strong emotion.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Old English used the verb for a wide range of acts of putting down, from abolishing a custom to overthrowing a nation, most of them now gone.^[8] Middle English had two stems, alegge and aleye, and each was identical in form to verbs of French origin, so that the senses overlapped with allege and alloy.^[8][7][9] Etymonline, quoting the older OED, speaks of a perplexing network of uses that belong entirely to none of the original verbs.^[7] Ayto sees the senses "relieve, mitigate" developing from the 13th to the 15th century under the influence of Old French aleger (“to lighten”), from Latin alleviō, the source of alleviate, and of aleier (“to qualify, moderate”);^[10] Hoad names the same two verbs.^[11] Gower has the word for "ease, alleviate".^[12] The stem aleye was levelled through the whole verb by the late 14th century and alegge was gone by the end of the 15th, so that Spenser's alegge of 1579 is a deliberate archaism.^[8] From 1493 it was also used of quelling wind and storms,^[8] as in Shakespeare's Tempest, "Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them".^[13]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English ālecgan, to put down, in Beowulf.^[5]
• Old English – to lay aside; to annul a law; to overthrow; to quell a disturbance or emotion; to make dust settle.^[8]
• c. 1150 – Middle English aleyen, to put down.^[5]
• c. 1275 – intransitive, to subside, become calm (obsolete by 1723).^[8]
• c. 1425 – noun, lessening of force, abatement, in Lydgate.^[8]
• before 1450 – noun, dilution, especially of wine (obsolete by 1757).^[8]
• 1493 – to quell wind or a storm.^[8]
• 1607 – noun, a restraint or check (obsolete by 1783).^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put fear, suspicion or the like to rest; to calm: The minister's visit allayed the villagers' fears.^[3][14][8]
2. To reduce the intensity of pain, hunger or the like; to alleviate: Cold water allayed the itching.^[3][14][13]
3. To cause wind or a storm to subside, or dust to settle.^[8][13]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1400) To overthrow or subdue.^[8][3][13]
5. (obsolete, Old English–1500) To lay aside or annul a law or custom.^[8][13]

Noun

1. (archaic) Alleviation, abatement.^[3][8]
2. (obsolete, 1607–1783) A check or restraint.^[3][8][13]

Word family

• allayer
• unallayed

allay² alloy

Etymology

The word meaning alloy is, as a noun, inherited from Middle English alay,^[15][3] probably borrowed from Old French alai (“alloy”), also allai and alaie, variants of aloi,^[8][3] which the Shorter Oxford gives as an Old Northern French form.^[13] The verb is inherited from Middle English alayen,^[3] probably borrowed from Middle French allayer (“to alloy metals”), recorded in this sense from 1389,^[8][3] a variant of allier (“to join, bind”),^[8][13] from Latin alligō (“to bind to”).^[3] It therefore shares its source with alloy and ally.^[8][13][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, the prescribed fineness of gold or silver: before 1325, in the Statutes of the Realm.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise dates the noun to the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense moved from the standard of the metal to the act of mixing metals (1348) and to the baser metal itself (about 1400, in Piers Plowman).^[8] From there it spread to anything inferior mixed with something good, before 1450,^[8] as in Bacon's "Mixture of Falshood, is like Allay in Coyne of Gold and Siluer".^[13] Johnson (1755) still entered the noun, as the baser metal mixed in coins to harden them.^[16] The OED's last records for the noun and verb come from the late 18th and 19th centuries,^[8] and the sense "temper, moderate" merged with the calming verb.^[13][8]

Timeline

• before 1325 – noun, fineness of gold or silver (obsolete by 1752).^[8]
• 1348 – noun, the mixing of metals (obsolete by 1796).^[8]
• c. 1400 – verb, to mix a metal with a less valuable one (obsolete by 1796); noun, the baser metal (obsolete by 1852), in Piers Plowman.^[8]
• before 1450 – noun, an inferior thing mixed with a better (obsolete by 1817).^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic) To alloy a metal.^[3][8][13]

Noun

1. (archaic) An alloy, or a baser metal mixed with a finer one.^{[3][8][13][16]}