Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “alliance” come from?

Alliance comes from Middle English alliaunce, from Old French aliance, meaning a joining or uniting.

alliance (English): The state of being allied; The act of allying or...

Definitions

  1. The state of being allied; The act of allying or...

Ancestry of “alliance”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle EnglishalliaunceAlliance; a pact making allies or the state of...
2Old Frenchaliance—
3Frenchalliancealliance, union; wedding ring
4Frenchallierto ally; to alloy
5Old Frenchalierto unite; to join together
6Latinalligō—
7Latinad-to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it...
8Latinīn-—
9Latinîn—
10Latinenlookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ
11Proto-Italicenin
12Proto-Indo-Europeanh₁énin

Words derived from “alliance”

  • misalliance
  • realliance
  • antialliance
  • alaiens
Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₁én →