The act of alleging or making a claim; an allegation or assertion.
From 'allege' plus the French suffix '-ment' (from Latin '-mentum'), which creates nouns describing an action or result. This is an archaic variant of 'allegation.'
This word is basically a fancy old way of saying 'allegation,' but it shows how English borrowed the '-ment' suffix from French to create nouns—we still use it in 'government,' 'movement,' and 'payment.'
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