Allegiance

How to spell allegiance

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce allegiance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does allegiance mean?

1. nounLoyalty or devoted commitment to a person, country, group, or cause.

Allegiance in a sentence

• New citizens swear allegiance to the nation at the ceremony.

• His allegiance to the company kept him there for thirty years.

Where does allegiance come from?

Language of origin: French

This word reaches English from Anglo-Norman French ligeance, the bond owed by a vassal to his liege lord, which was built on lige (liege), the word for a feudal superior or, conversely, the subject sworn to serve him. That lige is usually traced to a Germanic root meaning 'free', since a liege man was free yet bound by sworn duty, though some scholars connected it instead to the Latin ligare, 'to bind', which fits the sense of being tied to a lord. English took the term up in the late 1300s, and the opening 'a' crept in partly through confusion with that Latin ligare and with words like 'alliance'. The original meaning was strictly feudal, the loyalty a tenant owed for his land, before it broadened into the general devotion or faithfulness a person feels toward a country, cause, or leader. The deceptive spelling, with its doubled l, the soft g, and the unstressed -iance ending, all trace back to this French and Latin tangle rather than to plain English roots.

How the word is built

• a- (prefix, from Anglo-French ligeance)
• liege (a feudal lord or vassal)
• -ance (noun suffix meaning state or condition)