allege

English

Alternative forms

• alledg (obsolete)
• alledge (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈlɛdʒ/, X-SAMPA: /@.lEdZ/
• Rhymes: -ɛdʒ

Etymology 1

From Old French alegier, from Latin alleviāre, present active infinitive of alleviō (“lighten”), from ad + levis (“light”).

Verb

allege (third-person singular simple present alleges, present participle alleging, simple past and past participle alleged)

1. (obsolete) To lighten, diminish.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:

     and suffir never your soveraynté to be alledged with your subjects, nother the soveraygne of your persone and londys.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     Hart that is inly hurt, is greatly eased / With hope of thing, that may allegge his smart [...].

Etymology 2

From Middle English aleggen, from Anglo-Norman aleger, the form from Old French esligier, from Medieval Latin *exlītigāre (“to clear at law”), from Latin ex (“out”) + lītigō (“sue at law”), the meaning from Old French alleguer, from Latin allēgāre, present active infinitive of allēgō (“send, depute; relate, mention, adduce”), from ad (“to”) + lēgō (“send”).

Verb

allege (third-person singular simple present alleges, present participle alleging, simple past and past participle alleged)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To state under oath, to plead.
2. (archaic) To cite or quote an author or his work for or against.
3. (transitive) To adduce (something) as a reason, excuse, support etc.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, I.39:

     I will further alleage a storie [...] to make us palpably feele his naturall condition.

4. (transitive) To make a claim as justification or proof; to make an assertion without proof.

   The agency alleged my credit history had problems.

Related terms

• allegation
• privilege

Translations

to state under oath

• Bulgarian: заявявам под клетва
• Finnish: vannoa (fi)

• Japanese: 確言する (ja) (かくげんする, kakugen suru), 言い切る (ja) (iikiru)
• Spanish: afirmar (es)

assert without proof

• Bulgarian: твърдя (bg) (tvǎrdja)
• Catalan: al·legar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宣稱 (cmn), 宣称 (cmn) (xuānchēng)

• Finnish: väittää (fi)
• German: behaupten (de)
• Greek: ισχυρίζομαι (el) (ischyrízomai)

• Japanese: 主張する (ja) (しゅちょうする, shuchō suru), 喧伝する (ja) (けんでんする, kenden suru), 言い張る (ja) (iiharu)
• Russian: безосновательно утверждать (bezosnovátelʼno utverždátʼ)n
• Scottish Gaelic: cuir às leth (gd)
• Spanish: alegar (es)
• Swedish: påstå (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Portuguese: alegar

See also

• Wikipedia article on "oath"

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989

External links

• allege in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• allege in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

---

Latin

Verb

allege

1. second-person singular present active imperative of allegō