allegorize

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English allegoriese, allegorisen (“to interpret (something) in a spiritual sense”),[1] 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).[2] Ἀ̆λληγορῐ́ᾱ (Ăllēgorĭ́ā) is probably derived from ἀλληγορος (allēgoros, “allegorical”) (though only attested in Byzantine 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.

Pronunciation

Verb

allegorize (third-person singular simple present allegorizes, present participle allegorizing, simple past and past participle allegorized) (American and Oxford British spelling)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To interpret (a picture, story, or other form of communication) to reveal a hidden, broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.
    2. To create an allegory from (a character, an event or situation, etc.); also, to use one or more symbols to depict (a hidden, broader message about real-world issues and occurrences).
    3. (chiefly religion) Followed by away: to treat (something) as allegorical or symbolic rather than as truth.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To interpret an allegory.
    2. To create or use allegory.
      For his explanation he will allegorize the problem.

Alternative forms

  1. allegorise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “allegorīsen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Compare “allegorize, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “allegorize, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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