- allegiance (n.)
- late 14c., from Anglo-French legaunce "loyalty of a liege-man to his lord," from Old French legeance, from liege (see liege); erroneously associated with Latin ligare "to bind;" corrupted in spelling by confusion with the now-obsolete legal term allegeance "alleviation." General figurative sense of "recognition of claims to respect or duty" is attested from 1732.
