Obs. or arch. Forms: 4–5 alay(e, 5–8 allay(e, (8–9 ALLOY). [a. ONFr. aleyer, alayer (mod.Fr. aloyer), a variant of alier, allier, ALLY:—L. alligā-re to combine, f. al-, ad- to + ligāre to bind. (Ligāre gave in OFr., according to accent, inf. lier, pres. t. leie, leies, leiet, lions, liez, leient, whence, by levelling of forms, two verbs lier, je lie, etc., and leier, je leie, etc. So ad-ligāre gave alie-r, and aleie-r (alai-er), now allier and aloyer (Cotgr. allayer), with differentiation of meaning. Cf. Fr. plier and ployer:—L. plicāre; OFr. desplier, despleier, desploier, mod.Fr. déployer, Eng. display:—L. displicāre.) At a later period the Fr. aloyer and sb. aloi, in reference to metals, were explained by false etymology from à loi (reduced) to law, or to legal standard. In Eng. this vb. has been confused with the prec., from identity of form and contact of meaning. In the original sense it is now changed to ALLOY, after mod. Fr.]
1. To mix (metals); esp. to mix with a baser metal, so as to lower the standard or quality.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 346. Þe metal, þat is mannes soule With synne is foule alayed.
1530. Palsgr., 420/1. I allaye, as mettals be alayde or as sylver or golde is with their mixture.
1587. Harrison, England, I. II. xxv. 363. The finesse of the metall began to be verie much alaied.
1649. Lovelace, Poems (1659), 93. The Gold allayd almost halfe brasse.
1687. Settle, Dryden’s Plays, 51. That to convert gold Ore into silver, he allays it with common Sand.
1796. Pearson, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 439. Hardening copper … by allaying it with iron.
2. fig. To mix with something inferior, to contaminate, debase; to deteriorate or detract from.
1447. Bokenham, Lyvys of Seyntys, 282. For both of men and wummen also The molde these dayis ys so sore alayde Wyth froward wyl.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, V. ix. (1840), 257. Debased and allayed with superstitious intents. Ibid. (1642), Holy & Prof. St., I. vii. 17. He doth not so allay his servants bread … to make that servants meat which is not mans meat.
1769. Robertson, Charles V., III. VIII. 66. His extraordinary qualities were allayed with no inconsiderable mixture of human frailty.
¶ See at the end of the prec. word, a number of senses combining the ideas of ALLAY, to alloy, or deteriorate, and ALLAY, to put down, abate, reduce, which might equally follow here. When these arose, the two verbs, originally distinct, had come to be viewed as one.
