allodiumn.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin alodium, allodium (from 8th cent.; frequently from 11th cent., especially in Domesday Book and other British sources), alteration (after words in -ium ; compare -y suffix⁴) of alodis (6th cent. in the Salic Law; also alodus , alodum , and (from 9th cent. in Spanish sources, in areas with former Visigothic influence, reflecting the unattested base noun of Gothic audags happy: see eady adj.) alaudis , alaudum ) < an unattested Frankish compound < the Germanic base of all adj., pron., n., adv., and conj. + the Germanic base of Old English ēad wealth (see edness n.). The different endings of the post-classical Latin word reflect various inflectional endings of the unattested Germanic compound. On the Germanic word, see further Etymol. Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen at *alōdi. Compare later allod n., allody n.On the post-classical Latin word, see further the detailed article in J. F. Niermeyer Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus (1976) at alodis, listing sixteen senses relating to different kinds of property and estates. The post-classical Latin noun and its unattested Germanic etymon were also borrowed into other European languages. Compare Old High German alōde , dative singular (in fon alōde , translating post-classical Latin de alode : beginning of the 9th cent. in an isolated attestation in an East Franconian translation of the Salic Law; German Allod subsequently from the late 17th cent.), which for phonological reasons must show a borrowing from the unattested Frankish compound (the expected form in a compound formed within Old High German would have been *alōt ). Compare also Middle Dutch alloy , and Old French alué (10th cent.; also aluef , aluet , etc.; Middle French, French alleu , †aloy ), Old Occitan alo (1080, originally in plural alos ; also aloc , aloo , etc.), Catalan alou (13th cent.; 1142 as †alod ), Spanish †alode (c1090), Italian †alluodo (a1323), all < the unattested Frankish compound. Compare also German (now rare) Allodium (c1530; late before 17th cent.), French †allode (apparently only 1611 (in Cotgrave) and 1636 in dictionaries), Old Occitan alodi , Spanish alodio (1562), Italian allodio (1673; a1323 as †alluodio ), and quot. c1200 at allod n., all < Latin. Usage varies, in this word and its derivatives, between al- and all-. In post-classical Latin, forms in al- are more usual.