Alleggeaunce

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The duty of faithful loyalty that a subject or follower owes to a monarch, lord or cause
2. Fidelity a vassal or subject was once bound to show toward a sovereign or feudal superior
3. Loyal devotion owed by a person to a ruler, lord, or organization they have sworn to serve

Etymology: "Alleggeaunce" is an obsolete English noun for allegiance, the duty of loyalty a subject owed to a sovereign or lord. It is a variant spelling that appeared in Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French "ligeance" (later "allegeance"), itself derived from "lige," meaning a liege lord or a vassal bound in direct service to a lord. The Latin root is "ligare," to bind, which is the same source behind English "ligament" and "league" in its sense of a binding agreement. The spelling with the extra "g" and "au" reflects the French-influenced forms that circulated in late medieval English legal and courtly writing, when scribes often wrote words to look more like their French originals. The "al-" prefix was likewise a later addition that made the word resemble "allegiance" in Latin-influenced spelling. Because the word fell out of use after the Early Modern period, the modern form "allegiance" has taken over entirely.