Etymology and origin of the Romanian word alega
alega1 to cling to, pester
Etymology tree of alega1
From the same root · alega1
Pronunciation
- /a.leˈɡa/[1]
Forms
alega (third-person singular present aleagă, past participle alegat, third-person subjunctive alege) 1st conjugation[1]
Etymology
The word for “to cling to, pester” is inherited from Latin alligō (“to bind to, fasten”), from ad- and ligō (“to bind”).[2][3][4][5][1][6] The REW lists it with Italian allegare and French allier.[7] Ciorănescu also names Spanish aligar and Portuguese alligar and notes that all the Romance words are learned formations.[3] The literary language prefers the simple lega in this sense, and the verb is a doublet of alia, borrowed from the French verb.[3][3][8]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELR and MDA2 date the first record to Ispirescu's tales of 1892, where everyone pestered a girl to cook for them one day: „se alegară de dînsa”.[2][4][8]
Semantic evolution
The verb is reflexive and takes de: to latch on to someone, to give them no rest, to pick a quarrel;[8][9] Ispirescu writes of men who „se alegară de dînsul” and sought a quarrel with him.[8][9] A folk song uses it of longing that takes hold of someone: „De cine dorul s-aleagă, Nu-i pare lucru de șagă”.[8][10] MDA2 adds a transitive sense “to seize, overcome”, as drowsiness overcomes the eyes in Ispirescu.[4][10]
Timeline
Meanings
Verb
alega2 to allege
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- c. 1800 Micu, as alegălui
- Borrowed from
- French alléguer
- Ultimate origin
- Latin lēx
Pronunciation
- /a.leˈɡa/[1]
Forms
alega (third-person singular present aleghează, past participle alegat, third-person subjunctive alegheze) 1st conjugation[1]
Etymology
The word for “to allege” is borrowed from French alléguer, with Latin allēgō (“to adduce, cite”) as a second model.[2][5][11][12][1] MDA2 gives French alone, Tiktin Latin alone.[4][13] The Latin verb first meant “to send, depute” and was formed from ad- and lēgō (“to depute, send on a mission”), from lēx (“law”);[2][14] French took it from Latin in 1246 and gave it a legal sense.[2][14] The older variant alegălui adapted the Latin verb to the Romanian verbs in -ălui.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELR's first record is Micu's legal handbook of about 1800, as alegălui; the form alega is in Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862, glossed “to allege, give as a reason”.[2][15] Tiktin dates it to Bobb's dictionary of 1822.[13]
Semantic evolution
It has stayed a legal term: to put forward a fact, a statement or a circumstance in support of a claim or as a justification.[5][4] Tiktin gives the senses “to cite, adduce” and “to allege, pretend”.[13] Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary of 1869 gives alega and alegatiune as legal equivalents.[16] Its noun alegație came at the same time, from Micu's handbook on.[2]
Timeline
- c. 1800 – alegălui and the noun alegație in Micu's legal handbook.[2]
- 1822 – Bobb's dictionary.[13]
- 1862 – the form alega in Pontbriant's dictionary.[2][15]
Meanings
Verb
- (law) To allege, to put forward a fact or argument as justification or in support of a claim: Avocatul a alegat legitima apărare. “The lawyer pleaded self-defence.”[5][4][1]
Word family
- alegație
Related words
- lega
- alia
Usage notes
The two verbs are conjugated differently: the inherited one has aleg, se aleagă, the legal one aleghez, aleghează (DEX, MDA2, Wiktionary), though older dictionaries give it aleg too.[5][4][1][11][9]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. alega
- ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. alega
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 38
- ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 27
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 363
- ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. alega
- ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 58
- ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. alega
- ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. alega
- ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. alega
- ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. alega
- ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 22
- ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 132
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Alega.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/alega. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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