allege

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English alleggen, also aleggen,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman aleger (“to allege, claim, cite”), also allegger.^{[4][5][6][7][3]} Etymonline says it has the form of one French verb and the meaning of a second.^[6] Most dictionaries take the Anglo-Norman verb as a form of Old French esligier (“to clear at law, acquit”),^{[6][5][7][3][2][8]} from Vulgar Latin *exlītigō (“to clear of charges in a lawsuit”),^[7][3][9] formed from ex- (“out of”) and lītigō (“to sue, bring suit”),^[6][5][3] from līs (“lawsuit”).^[7][8] Its meaning, though, is that of alleguer, now alléguer, from Latin allēgō (“to send for, bring forth, cite, produce in evidence”),^[6][10][11] formed from ad- (“to”) and lēgō (“to depute, send”).^[6] Hoad holds that the French verb itself cannot be the source of the English one,^[7] while Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com take alleguer as the source, influenced or conflated with alegier, which Dictionary.com glosses "to justify, free", literally "to lighten", from Late Latin alleviō.^[11][12] The OED, revised in 2012, sees the Anglo-Norman verb as probably a specialised use of alegier "to clear someone of an accusation", itself probably a sense of alegier "to lighten", with its meaning shaped by the Latin verb or by alleguer;^[4] it adds a possible influence of Anglo-Norman alaier (“to declare on oath”).^[4] Weekley notes that the Old French verb was latinised as though it were formed on Latin lēx (“law”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a formal declaration before a court; to plead: about 1300, in a life of St Thomas Becket.^[4][6] Barnhart also dates the sense "plead before a court" to about 1300.^[5]

Semantic evolution

According to Ayto, traces of the idea of asserting something without proof appear within fifty years of the word's arrival, but the sense took a couple of centuries to develop fully.^[9] Etymonline dates "to claim as true, with or without proof" to the mid-14th century,^[6] and the OED's first record of it is in Mannyng's Chronicle, probably before 1400.^[4] Gower used it before 1393 for giving something as a reason or excuse, and Trevisa before 1398 for citing an authority, a sense the OED follows to 1878.^[4] The legal sense of declaring on oath died out in the 18th and 19th centuries.^[4][13] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to affirm; to declare; to maintain" and "to plead as an excuse, or produce as an argument".^[14] The passive is alleged to is recorded from 1604, in King James's Counterblaste to Tobacco, and it is alleged that from before 1626, in Bacon.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to declare on oath before a court (obsolete by 1756).^[4][5]
• before 1393 – to give as a reason or excuse, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[4]
• before 1398 – to cite or quote an authority, in Trevisa (obsolete by 1878).^[4]
• before 1400 – to assert without proof, in Mannyng's Chronicle.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense to the mid-14th century.^[6]
• 1604 – passive with an infinitive, in King James's Counterblaste to Tobacco.^[4]
• before 1626 – it is alleged that, in Bacon.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To assert that something is true, especially that someone has done wrong, without or before giving proof: The lawsuit alleges that the firm concealed the defects.^[15][11][4]
2. To put forward as a reason, excuse or argument.^[15][4][14]
3. (archaic) To cite or quote an author or passage as an authority.^[15][11][13]
4. (obsolete, c. 1300–1844) To declare on oath before a court; to plead.^[4][13][11]

Word family

• allegeable
• alleger
• misallege
• reallege

Related words

• allegation
• litigate
• litigation
• alleviate
• allay
• legate

Usage notes

Middle English had an unrelated allege, to lighten or alleviate (before 1375 to 1530), from Anglo-Norman aleger, which was replaced by allay,^[4][13] and the Wycliffite Bible has an allege meaning to offer up a prayer.^[4] The architectural allège, a thinned part of a wall such as the panel under a window, is a borrowing from French recorded from about 1881.^[11] Ayto notes that the hard g of allegation shows that it comes from a slightly different source, Latin allēgātiō.^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins