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Origin and history of alloy

alloy(n.)

early 14c. "relative freedom of a noble metal from alloy or other impurities," from Anglo-French alai, Old French aloi "alloy," from aloiier (see alloy (v.)). The meaning " base metal alloyed with a noble metal" is from c. 1400. The modern spelling from late 17c. The meaning "any mixture of metals," without reference to values, is from 1827.

also from early 14c.

alloy(v.)

c. 1400, "mix (a metal) with a baser metal," from Old French aloiier, aliier "assemble, join," from Latin alligare "bind to, tie to," from ad "to" (see ad-) + ligare "to bind, bind one thing to another, tie" (from PIE root *leig- "to tie, bind"). In figurative use often implying debasement or reduction. The meaning "mix any two metals" without reference to values is from 1822. Related: Alloyed; alloying.

also from c. 1400

Entries linking to alloy

allay(v.)

"put down, quiet, assuage, pacify," Middle English alegen, from Old English alecgan "to put, place, put down; remit, give up, suppress, abolish; diminish, lessen," from a- "down, aside" (see a- (1)) + lecgan "to lay" (see lay (v.)). A common Germanic compound (cognates: Gothic uslagjan "lay down," Old High German irleccan, German erlegen "to bring down").

Early Middle English pronunciations of -y- and -g- were not always distinct, and the word was confused in Middle English with various senses of Romanic-derived alloy (v.) and especially a now-obsolete verb allege "to alleviate, lighten" (from Latin alleviare, from ad "to" + levis "light" in weight; from PIE root *legwh- "not heavy, having little weight").

Amid the overlapping of meanings that thus arose, there was developed a perplexing network of uses of allay and allege, that belong entirely to no one of the original vbs., but combine the senses of two or more of them. [OED]

Hence the senses "lighten, alleviate; mix, temper, weaken." The confusion with the Latin words probably also accounts for the unetymological double -l-, attested from 17c. Related: Allayed; allaying.

unalloyed(adj.)

"not debased or reduced by foreign admixture," 1670s (figurative); 1760s (literal), from un- (1) "not" + past participle of alloy (v.).

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Trends of alloy

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

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admixture

c. 1600, "act of mingling," with -ure + admix (1530s), a back-formed verb from admixt "mingled" (early 15c.), a past-participle adjective from Latin admixtus "mixed with," past participle of admiscere "to add to by mingling, mix with," from ad "to" (see ad-) + miscere "to mix" (f

metal

an undecomposable elementary substance having certain recognizable qualities (opacity, conductivity, plasticity, high specific gravity, etc.), mid-13c., from Old French metal "metal; material, substance, stuff" (12c.), from Latin metallum "metal, mineral; mine, quarry," from Gree

electrum

"alloy of gold and up to 40% silver," late 14c....(in Old English elehtre), from Latin electrum "alloy of gold and silver," also "amber" (see electric)....The Romans used it of amber but also of the alloy. The sense of "amber" also occasionally is found in English....

brass

"yellow malleable alloy metal, harder than copper," Old English bræs "brass, bronze," originally any alloy of copper, in...England usually with tin (this is now called bronze), later and in modern use an alloy of roughly two parts copper to one...Perhaps akin to French brasser "to brew," because it is an alloy....discriminated, the Italian word for 'brass' ( bronzo, bronze) came into use to distinguish this 'ancient brass' from the current alloy...

bronze

1721, "alloy of copper and (usually) a smaller amount of tin," from French bronze, from Italian bronzo, from Medieval Latin...In Middle English, the distinction between bronze (copper-tin alloy) and brass (copper-zinc alloy) was not clear, and both...

carat

when used as jewelry, and thus it became a measure of gold purity (1550s): 18-carat gold is eighteen parts gold, six parts alloy...; 14-carat gold is 10/24ths alloy, etc....In U.S., karat is used for "proportion of fine gold in an alloy" and carat for "measure of weight of a precious stone."...

osmium

The densest stable element, it commonly is found in alloy with iridium. Related: Osmic; osmious....

combine

early 15c., "to associate, unite, join two or more things together" (transitive), from Old French combiner (14c.) and directly from Late Latin combinare "to unite, yoke together," from Latin com "with, together" (see com-) + bini "two by two," adverb from bi- "twice" (from PIE ro

merge

1630s, "to plunge or sink in" (to something), a sense now obsolete, from Latin mergere "to dip, dip in, immerse, plunge," probably rhotacized from *mezgo, from PIE *mezgo- "to dip, to sink, to wash, to plunge" (source also of Sanskrit majjanti "to sink, dive under," Lithuanian ma

coalesce

1540s, "grow together, unite by growing into one body," from Latin coalescere "unite, grow together, become one in growth," from assimilated form of com- "together" (see co-) + alescere "be nourished," hence, "increase, grow up," inchoative of alere "to suckle, nourish," from PIE

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