allegorize

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₂el-“beyond; other”
2. Late Latin · derived from-izō
3. Ancient Greek · derived fromᾰ̓λληγορῐ́ᾱ“veiled language, allegory”
4. Late Latin · derived fromallēgorizāre
5. Middle French · derived fromallegoriser
6. Anglo-Norman · derived fromallegorizer
7. Middle English · inherited fromallegoriese
8. English todayallegorize

From Late Middle English allegoriese, allegorisen (“to interpret (something) in a spiritual sense”), from Anglo-Norman allegorizer and Middle French allegoriser, alegoriser (“to express or interpret allegorically”) (modern French allégoriser), and from their etymon Late Latin allēgorizāre, the present active infinitive of allēgorizō (“to express or interpret allegorically”), from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓λληγορῐ́ᾱ (ăllēgorĭ́ā, “veiled language, allegory”) + Late Latin -izō (suffix forming verbs expressing resemblance or similarity). Ἀ̆λληγορῐ́ᾱ (Ăllēgorĭ́ā) is probably derived from ἀλληγόρος (allēgóros, “allegorical”) (though only attested in Medieval Greek) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); and ἀλληγορος (allēgoros) from ᾰ̓́λλος (ắllos, “another; different”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“beyond; other”)) + ἠγόρ- (ēgór-, the imperfect stem of ἀγορεύω (agoreúō, “to speak in the assembly; to say, speak”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming certain inflections of adjectives). By surface analysis, allegory + -ize.

Words from the same roots