allegory

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A story whose characters and events stand for a deeper meaning, often a moral or political one.

   Animal Farm is an allegory about the dangers of political power.

2. 2
   noun

   The use of symbols to express a hidden, deeper meaning.

   The painting is full of allegory, with each figure representing a virtue.

Simplified etymology

Allegory comes from Greek allos, meaning “other,” and -agoria, meaning “speaking.” Its basic idea is speaking about one thing in terms of another.

The noun is derived from Late Middle English allegorie (“symbolic interpretation; symbolism; (Christianity) one of the four methods of interpreting the Bible”) + English -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state). Allegorie is borrowed from Anglo-Norman allegorie and Middle French allegorie (“narrative with a hidden meaning; such a meaning or its interpretation”) (modern French allégorie), and directly from their etymon Latin allēgoria (“figurative or metaphorical language, allegory; parable”) (whence Late Latin allēgoria (“allegorical interpretation of the Bibl…

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