Where does “lege” come from?
Allege comes from Old French alegier, from Latin allego meaning "to assign or cite," formed from the prefix ad- combined with legʰ-, a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to gather or pick."
lege (English): Clipping of legislature; To allege; to assert; A...
Definitions
- Clipping of legislature; To allege; to assert; A...
Ancestry of “lege”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | allege | To state under oath, to plead; To cite or quote... |
| 2 | Middle English | aleggen | — |
| 3 | Anglo-Norman | aleger | — |
| 4 | Old French | esligier | to acquit |
| 5 | Medieval Latin | exlitigare | to clear at law |
| 6 | Latin | ex | A name of the letter "X"; out of, from |
| 7 | Latin | commūnicō | — |
| 8 | Latin | commūnis | — |
| 9 | Old Latin | com(m)oinis | — |
| 10 | Proto-Italic | kommoinis | — |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱom-moy-ni- | held in common |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 14 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 15 | Russian | кит | whale; genitive plural of ки́та |
| 16 | Old Church Slavonic | китъ | whale |
| 17 | Ancient Greek | κῆτος | whale, sea monster; abyss |