Other forms: allayed, allaying, allays
To allay is to calm a fear or to ease a pain. Allay fears, allay concerns, allay the pain.
It takes feelings and worries rather than people — you allay somebody's fears, not the person — and it means reducing rather than removing. Allay concerns is a fixed phrase in official statements. Note that the Old English verb meant to lay down, so allaying is laying something to rest.
1verballayTo calm a fear or ease a pain.
“The pilot's calm voice allayed the passengers' worries.”
allay is a calming.
Old English alecgan means to lay down or put aside. Lay and lie are relatives.
Old English
āleċġan
Middle English
alayen
English, today
allay
From Middle English alayen, from Old English āleċġan. From Middle English alayen, aleyen, aleggen, from Old English āleċġan (“to put, place, lay down, lay aside, throw down, give up, cease from, abandon; put down, allay, suppress, abolish, conquer, destroy, overcome, refute; lay upon, inflict, impose upon; diminish, take away, refuse, lessen, withhold”), from Proto-Germanic uzlagjaną (“to lay down”), equivalent to a + lay. Cognate with German erlegen (“to impose, cause to succumb, kill”), Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (“to lay down”). In Middle English the word was identical to forms of allege and alloy, leading to much overlapping of senses.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA