the.com/allegiance
Loyalty with a paper trail, sworn loud enough that breaking it counts as treason.
means A committed loyalty or devotion to a person, group, cause, or nation, often formally pledged.
from From Old French ligeance, the duty a liege man owed his lord — feudal loyalty hardened into a word, then borrowed back as fierce devotion to crown and country.
Liege rootsTied to medieval lord-and-vassal bonds, not free choice.
Folk respellingEnglish nudged spelling toward Latin ligare, to bind.
Pledge ritualAmerican schoolchildren swear it daily to a flag.