different between instruct vs allege

English

Etymology

From Latin ?nstr?ctus, perfect passive participle of ?nstru? (“I instruct; I arrange, furnish, or provide”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n?st??kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

instruct (third-person singular simple present instructs, present participle instructing, simple past and past participle instructed)

1. (transitive) To teach by giving instructions.

   Synonyms: educate, guide

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene 3,^[1]

     Supply me with the habit and instruct me

     How I may formally in person bear me

     Like a true friar.

   • 1682, Aphra Behn, The False Count, London: Jacob Tonson, Act III, Scene 2, p. 33,^[2]

     What a dishonour’s this, to me, to have so Dull a Father, that needs to be instructed in his Duty.

   • 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 156, 14 September, 1751, in Volume 5, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 177,^[3]

     […] the design of tragedy is to instruct by moving the passions,

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 10,^[4]

     […] I should deem you a man sore sick, it may be, yet not so sick but that an instructed and watchful physician might well hope to cure you.

   • 1974, Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, New York: William Morrow, Part 4, Chapter 29, p. 353,^[5]

     At the Laundromat I instruct Chris on how to operate the drier, start the washing machines […]

2. (transitive) To tell (someone) what they must or should do.

   Synonyms: command, direct, order

   Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act III, Scene 1,^[6]

     What, shall a child instruct you what to do?

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 39,^[7]

     All the servants were instructed to address her as “Mum,” or “Madam” […]

   • 1989, John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: Ballantine, 1997, Chapter 5, p. 195,^[8]

     Observing that the Christ Child’s nose was running, she deftly wiped it; then she held the handkerchief in place, while instructing him to “blow.”

Related terms

Translations

Noun

instruct (plural instructs)

1. (obsolete) Instruction.

Adjective

instruct (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Arranged; furnished; provided.
   • c. 1615, George Chapman (translator), Homer’s Odysses, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 4, p. 62,^[9]

     For he had neither ship, instruct with oares,

     Nor men to fetch him from those stranger shores.

2. (obsolete) Instructed; taught; enlightened.
   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, London: John Starkey, Book 1, lines 438-441, p. 24,^[10]

     Who ever by consulting at thy shrine

     Return’d the wiser, or the more instruct

     To flye or follow what concern’d him most,

     And run not sooner to his fatal snare?

Anagrams

• unstrict

English

Alternative forms

• alledg, alledge, allegge (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??l?d?/
• Rhymes: -?d?

Etymology 1

From Middle English aleggen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman aleger, the form from Old French esligier (“to acquit”), from Medieval Latin *exl?tig?re (“to clear at law”), from Latin ex (“out”) + l?tig? (“sue at law”), the meaning from Old French alleguer, from Latin all?g?re, present active infinitive of all?g? (“send, depute; relate, mention, adduce”), from ad (“to”) + l?g? (“send”).

Verb

allege (third-person singular simple present alleges, present participle alleging, simple past and past participle alleged)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To state under oath, to plead.
2. (archaic) To cite or quote an author or his work for or against.
3. (transitive) To adduce (something) as a reason, excuse, support etc.
4. (transitive) To make a claim as justification or proof; to make an assertion without proof.

Related terms

• allegation
• privilege

Translations

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Old French alegier, from Latin allevi?re, present active infinitive of allevi? (“lighten”), from ad + levis (“light”). Doublet of alleviate.

Verb

allege (third-person singular simple present alleges, present participle alleging, simple past and past participle alleged)

1. (obsolete) To lighten, diminish.

   • and suffir never your soveraynté to be alledged with your subjects, nother the soveraygne of your persone and londys.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     Hart that is inly hurt, is greatly eased / With hope of thing, that may allegge his smart […].

See also

• Wikipedia article on "oath"

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “allege”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Further reading

• allege in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• allege in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Latin

Verb

allege

1. second-person singular present active imperative of alleg?