allegiance

What it means

1. countableuncountableLoyalty or commitment to a cause, group, nation or of a subordinate to a superior.

   It was always going to be a hot occasion for Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, the one-time Ireland internationals who subsequently switched their allegiances.

   2024 September 7, David Hytner, “Rice and Grealish start new England era with Nations League victory in Ireland”, in The Guardian

   1 more example

   With what a feeling of joyful security did her heart go back to its old allegiance! Till now she had scarcely been aware of its strength, for she had known it but by its disappointment—now she fully admitted that early and passionate emotion with which Robert Evelyn had inspired her was indeed her destiny;...

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 83

   Synonyms: adherence, fidelity, loyalty, fealty, devotion, sympathy · Antonyms: treason, disloyalty

In a sentence

With what a feeling of joyful security did her heart go back to its old allegiance! Till now she had scarcely been aware of its strength, for she had known it but by its disappointment—now she fully admitted that early and passionate emotion with which Robert Evelyn had inspired her was indeed her destiny;...

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 83

Where it comes from

1. Old Frenchligeance
2. Anglo-Normanalegaunce“loyalty of a liege-servant to one's lord”
3. Middle Englishalegiaunce
4. Englishallegiance

From Middle English alegiaunce, from Anglo-Norman alegaunce (“loyalty of a liege-servant to one's lord”), variant of Old French ligeance, from lige (“vassal, liegeman”). More at liege.