alegar

Forms

alegar (first-person singular present alego, first-person singular preterite aleguei, past participle alegado)^[1] The 13th-century forms are alegar and allegar.^[2] The spelling allegar was the main one until the 20th-century reforms: Vieira calls it the more correct form, and Figueiredo (1899) refers alegar to it.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin allēgō (“to send as an envoy; to adduce”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alegar and Old Galician-Portuguese allegar in the 13th century.^[2][5][6][1] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing, and Nascentes says it came by a semi-learned route.^[1][7] The inherited outcome of the Latin verb survives only in Old French aleier and Old Occitan aleiar “to declare under oath”.^[8] The same Latin verb gave Spanish alegar.^[9]

The Latin verb is formed from ad- and lēgō (“to send as an envoy, depute”), and first meant “to send someone as one's agent”.^[10][11] Machado and Houaiss note that the sense “to put forward as proof or justification” came later, in imperial Latin.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][5] Lorenzo's chronology has decir e alegar e razonar “to say, allege and argue” in a document of 1324 known from an 18th-century copy, and Machado quotes a text of 1361: quando aconteçe que elles allegam... sseus Derejtos “when it happens that they plead their rights”.^[12][6] From the start the verb belonged to the language of law.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

Notarial books of Santiago and Noia in the 15th century use it in fixed formulas renouncing the right dizer nen alegar leis nen dereitos “to cite or plead laws or rights” against a contract.^[12] Cardoso (1569) glosses it with Latin cito and allego.^[13] The modern senses widen from pleading in court to giving any reason, excuse or pretext, and to citing one's own services to support a claim.^[2][14][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as alegar and allegar.^[2][5]
• 1324 – decir e alegar e razonar in a document (18th-century copy).^[12]
• 1361 – allegam in a text quoted by Machado.^[6]
• 1425 – dezer et alegar in a notarial book of Noia.^[12]
• 1431 – alegar in the Vida do honrado Infante Josafat (witness 1431–1446).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Alegar with Latin cito and allego.^[13]
• 1899 – Figueiredo still heads the verb allegar.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cite or put forward (facts, arguments, reasons) in defence of a cause; to allege, plead: O réu alegou que estava em casa nessa noite.^[2][15][1]
2. To give as an explanation, excuse or pretext.^[2][14][15]
3. To mention one's services or merits in order to claim a reward or support a request.^[2][14]
4. (law) To set out in court, citing laws and authorities.^[2][15]
5. (pronominal) To refer to or cite oneself.^[2]

Word family

• alegação
• alegante
• alegável

Related words

• Latin allego
• Spanish alegar

Usage notes

Vieira records an old use of alegar in the sense “to arrive”, which he takes from Spanish llegar.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. alegar
3. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 288
4. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 53
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. alegar
6. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. alegar
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alegar
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 356a
9. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. alegar
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. allego
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. allego
12. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. alegar
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alegar
14. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. alegar
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. alegar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. alegar