Forms: 4–5 al- allegeaunce, alie- alligiaunce, 5 alegeawns, 6 allegians, -gance, -giauns, -gyaunce, 6–7 alleagiance, allegeance, 7 aleige-, alleageance, 6– allegiance. [A derivative of LIEGE, q.v., OFr. lige, liege, late L. ligius: whence OFr. ligance, ligeance, ligence (Cotgr.); med.L. ligiantia, ligeantia, ligentia, ligantia (erroneously associated with ligāre to bind); ME. ligeaunce, ? legeance. Of the latter, allegiance, 14th c. alegeaunce, was orig. merely a variation, the a- being prefixed perh. through confusing the word with another legal term, ALLEGEANCE2, with which it was, at first, formally identical. The word was of Eng. formation, med.L. allegiantia being formed on it, and mod.Fr. allégeance according to Littré and Diez adopted from Eng.]
† 1. The relation of a liege lord; lordship. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, VI. 2326. Yff it like your Aliegiaunce, þat I, your lefe son, Be sent … it shall vs wele like. Ibid., XXI. 8909. And his alligiaunce lelly I will loute to.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VII. viii. 14. Hys Lord be detful alegeawns.
2. The relation or duties of a liege-man to his liege-lord; the tie or obligation of a subject to his sovereign, or government.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeless, I. 9. Of alegeaunce now lerneth a lesson oþer tweyne Wherby it standith and stablithe moste.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 324. He had, contrary his allegeaunce, made homage vnto Lewys.
1588. Greene, Pandosto (1607), 7. To diswade his subiects from their allegance.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., V. i. 179. Hast thou not sworne Allegeance unto me?
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xii. 60. Subjects may be freed from their Alleageance.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., I. I. x. 284. Natural allegiance is therefore perpetual.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 115. To take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy.
1845. Stephen, Laws of Eng., II. 399. We shall now pass from the duties of the sovereign to those which are owing to him from his people, and which are comprehended in the single word allegiance.
3. fig. The recognition of the claims that anything has to our respect and duty.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 235. Love all the faith, and all th’ allegiance then.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. 10. Nor to that lady free alone Did the gay king allegiance own.
1830. Sir J. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 27. Their allegiance (so to speak) to natural science.
1851. Helps, Friends in C., I. 22. There is something to which a man owes a larger allegiance than to any human affection.
