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Origin and history of allege

allege(v.)

c. 1300, "make a formal declaration in court;" mid-14c., "pronounce positively, claim as true," with or without proof; it has the form of one French verb and the meaning of another. The form is Anglo-French aleger, Old French eslegier "to clear at law" (from a compound of Latin ex "out of;" see ex- + litigare "bring suit" (see litigation).

However eslegier meant "acquit, clear of charges in a lawsuit," and the Middle English word somehow acquired the meaning of French alléguer, from Latin allegare/adlegare "send for, bring forth, name, produce in evidence, send on business," from ad "to" (see ad-) + legare "to depute, send" (see legate). Related: Alleged; alleging.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to allege

alleged(adj.)

mid-15c., "quoted," past-participle adjective from allege. Attested from 1610s in sense of "brought forth in court;" 1670s as "asserted but not proved."

legate(n.)

mid-12c., "authorized representative of the Pope," from Old French legat and directly from Latin legatus "ambassador, envoy," originally "provided with a commission," past participle of legare "send as a deputy, send with a commission, charge, bequeath," possibly literally "engage by contract" and related to lex (genitive legis) "contract, law," from PIE root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather." General sense of "ambassador, delegate, messenger of a state or authority" is from late 14c. in English. Related: Legator; legatee; legatine.

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Trends of allege

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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litigation
"act of carrying on a lawsuit," 1640s, from Late Latin litigationem (nominative litigatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin litigare "to dispute, quarrel; sue, go to court," from phrase litem agere "to drive a suit," from litem (nominative lis) "lawsuit, dispute
allegation
early 15c., "action of alleging, formal declaration in court," from Old French alegacion "allegation, affirmation" (Modern French allégation) and directly from Latin allegationem (nominative allegatio) "a sending, dispatching," noun of action from past-participle stem of allegare
say
Middle English seien, from Old English secgan "to utter, inform, speak, tell, relate," from Proto-Germanic *sagjanan "to say" (source also of Old Saxon seggian, Old Norse segja, Danish sige, Old Frisian sedsa, Middle Dutch segghen, Dutch zeggen, Old High German sagen, German sage
pretension
pretensionem (nominative pretensio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin praetendere "stretch in front, put forward, allege...
allay
word was confused in Middle English with various senses of Romanic-derived alloy (v.) and especially a now-obsolete verb allege...Amid the overlapping of meanings that thus arose, there was developed a perplexing network of uses of allay and allege, that...
diction
kind of delivery, style," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin dicere "to say, state, proclaim, make known, allege...They seem to have divided, imperfectly, the secondary senses between them: dicere "to say, state, proclaim, make known, allege...
pretense
Late Latin praetensus, altered from Latin praetentus, past participle of praetendere  "stretch in front, put forward; allege...
asseverate
"affirm positively or solemnly," 1791, from Latin asseveratus/adseveratus, past participle of asseverare/adseverare "to affirm, insist on, maintain," from ad "to" (see ad-) + severus "serious, grave, strict, austere," which is probably from PIE root *segh- "to have, hold," on the
maintain
c. 1300, maintenen, "to support, uphold, aid;" also "hold fast, keep in possession, preserve from capture or loss," from Anglo-French meintenir (Old French maintenir, 12c.) "keep (a wife), sustain; persevere in, practice continually," from Latin manu tenere "hold in the hand," fr
rave
early 14c., raven, "to show signs of madness or delirium, to rage in speech," from Old French raver, variant of resver "to dream; wander here and there, prowl; behave madly, be crazy," a word of unknown origin (compare reverie). An identical (in form) verb meaning "to wander, str

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Dictionary entries near allege
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