allay

• vt. 明るくする；和らげる；落ち着かせる

古英語の接頭辞a-「置く」「離れる」はPIE *uzに由来し、語源的にはoutと同じだが、ここでは接頭辞al-によって低俗化されている。 layは「置く」。

allay

allay: [OE] In Old English, alecgan meant literally ‘lay aside’ (-a ‘away, aside, out’, lecgan ‘lay’). The more recent senses ‘relieve, mitigate’ developed from the 13th to the 15th centuries owing to the influence of two formally similar Old French verbs: aleger ‘lighten’ (from Latin alleviāre, source of English alleviate [15]); and al(e)ier ‘qualify, moderate’ (source of English alloy).
=> lay

allay (v.)

Old English alecgan "to put down, remit, give up," a Germanic compound (cognates: Gothic uslagjan, Old High German irleccan, German erlegen), from a- "down, aside" + lecgan "to lay" (see lay).

Early Middle English pronunciations of -y- and -g- were not always distinct, and the word was confused in Middle English with various senses of Romanic-derived alloy and allege, especially the latter in an obsolete sense of "to lighten," from Latin ad- "to" + levis (see lever).

Amid the overlapping of meanings that thus arose, there was developed a perplexing network of uses of allay and allege, that belong entirely to no one of the original vbs., but combine the senses of two or more of them. [OED]

The double -l- is 17c., a mistaken Latinism. Related: Allayed; allaying.

1. He did what he could to allay his wife 's fears.

彼は妻の様々な恐怖を解消するために最善を尽くした。

2.The police tried to allay her fears but failed.

警察は彼女の恐怖を軽減しようとしたが、何の効果も得られなかった。

3.They are trying to allay public fears about the spread of the disease.

彼らはこの病気の伝播に対する公衆の恐怖を軽減しようと努力している。