- loyalty
- c.1400, from O.Fr. loyalté (Fr. loyauté), from O.Fr. loial, from L. legalis "legal," from lex (gen. legis "law"). Replaced Anglo-Norm. leal (q.v.), from the same Latin source. Sense development in English is feudal, via notion of "faithful in carrying out legal obligations." Loyalty oath first attested 1952.