Loyalise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Making a person or group faithful and committed to a particular cause, leader, or government
2. Winning over someone so that they become devoted and steadfast in their allegiance to a side
3. Bringing a population or individual to pledge fidelity and support to an established authority

Etymology: "Loyalise" is the British spelling of "loyalize," built from the adjective "loyal" plus the verb-forming suffix "-ise." The adjective "loyal" came into English from Old French "loial" (earlier "leial"), a word descended from Latin "legalis," meaning "of the law" or "legal," from "lex," "law." So a loyal person was, at root, one who kept faith with the law or with a lawful sovereign. The verb is an unremarkable product of English word-formation, with the suffix attaching to "loyal" to mean "to make loyal" or "to render someone loyal." Its most interesting relationship is with "legalise." The two words are piecewise doublets: they come from the same Latin root, "legalis," and English has split that root into two separate pieces, one that came through French as "loyal" and one that was borrowed directly as "legal." Each piece was then given its own verb ending, producing "loyalise" and "legalise" side by side.

Synonyms: align, commit

Antonyms: betray