different between alliance vs intimacy

English

Alternative forms

• alliaunce

Etymology

From Middle English alliaunce, from Old French aliance (French: alliance). Equivalent to ally +? -ance. Compare with Doric Greek ???? (halía, "assembly").

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??la?.?ns/
• Rhymes: -a??ns

Noun

alliance (countable and uncountable, plural alliances)

1. (uncountable) The state of being allied.

2. (countable) The act of allying or uniting.
3. (countable) A union or connection of interests between families, states, parties, etc., especially between families by marriage and states by compact, treaty, or league.
4. (countable) Any union resembling that of families or states; union by relationship in qualities; affinity.
   • 1871, Charles John Smith, Synonyms Discriminated

     the alliance of the principles of the world with those of the gospel

   • 1860, Henry Longueville Mansel, Prolegomena Logica: An Inquiry Into the Psychological Character of Logical Processes

     the alliance […] between logic and metaphysics

5. (with the definite article) The persons or parties allied.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nicholas Udall to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (union by relationship in qualities): connection, affinity, union, allyship
• (act of allying): union
• (persons or parties allied): coalition, league, confederation, team (informal)

Related terms

• ally

Translations

Verb

alliance (third-person singular simple present alliances, present participle alliancing, simple past and past participle allianced)

1. (obsolete) To connect or unite by alliance; to ally.

Further reading

• alliance at OneLook Dictionary Search
• alliance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• ancillae, canaille

French

Etymology

allier +? -ance

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.lj??s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

alliance f (plural alliances)

1. alliance, union
2. wedding ring

Descendants

• ? Polish: alians
• ? Portuguese: aliança
• ? Russian: ??????? (al?jáns), ???????? (al?jáns)
  • ? Armenian: ?????? (alyans)
  • ? Kazakh: ?????? (al?yans)
• ? Turkish: alyans

Further reading

• “alliance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• canaille

Middle English

Noun

alliance

1. Alternative form of alliaunce

English

Etymology

intimate +? -cy

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n.t?.m?.si/

Noun

intimacy (countable and uncountable, plural intimacies)

1. (uncountable, countable) Feeling or atmosphere of closeness and openness towards someone else, not necessarily involving sexuality.
   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Section 13.6^[1]

     To adulterous lust the most sacred duties are sacrificed, because, before marriage, men, by a promiscuous intimacy with women, learned to consider love as a selfish gratification—learned to separate it not only from esteem, but from the affection merely built on habit, which mixes a little humanity with it.

   • 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Truth of Intercourse” in Essays, English and American, The Harvard Classics, Volume 28, edited by Charles W. Eliot, New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, p. 287,^[2]

     The habitual liar may be a very honest fellow, and live truly with his wife and friends; while another man who never told a formal falsehood in his life may yet be himself one lie—heart and face, from top to bottom. This is the kind of lie which poisons intimacy.

   • 1908, Jack London, “To Build a Fire” in Lost Face, London: Mills & Boon, 1916,^[3]

     […] there was keen intimacy between the dog and the man.
2. (countable) Intimate relationship.
   • 1787, Robert Burns, Letter to Dr. Moore, 23 April, 1787, in J. Logie Robertson (ed.), The Letters of Robert Burns, Selected and Arranged, with an Introduction, London: Walter Scott, 1887, p. 57,^[5]

     I have formed many intimacies and friendships here, but I am afraid they are all of too tender a construction to bear carriage a hundred and fifty miles.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Volume I, Chapter 8,^[6]

     “I have always thought it a very foolish intimacy,” said Mr. Knightley presently, “though I have kept my thoughts to myself; but I now perceive that it will be a very unfortunate one for Harriet […] ”

   • 1899, Henry James, The Awkward Age, Book One, Chapter 2,^[7]

     “ […] it isn’t my notion of the way to bring up a girl to give her up, in extreme youth, to an intimacy with a young married woman who’s both unhappy and silly, whose conversation has absolutely no limits, who says everything that comes into her head and talks to the poor child about God only knows what […] ”

3. (countable, especially plural) Intimate detail, (item of) intimate information.
   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part One, Chapter 4,

     He recognized the tone as the one used by friendly sisters to discuss the infirmities of their husbands. It was Shama’s plea to a sister to exchange intimacies, to show support.

Antonyms

• solitude

Related terms

• intimate
• intimation

Translations

Anagrams

• imitancy, minacity