angel

English

Statue of an angel

Alternative forms

  • aynjel (Jamaican English)

Pronunciation

  • enPR: ānʹjəl, IPA(key): /ˈeɪn.dʒəl/
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio (US)(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English angel, aungel, ængel, engel, from Anglo-Norman angele, angle and Old English ængel, engel, enċġel (“angel, messenger”), possibly via an early Proto-Germanic *angiluz but ultimately from Latin angelus, from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”). The religious sense of the Greek word first appeared in the Septuagint as a translation of the Hebrew word מַלְאָךְ‎ (malʾāḵ, “messenger”) or יהוה מַלְאָךְ (malʾāḵ YHWH, “messenger of YHWH”). Cognate with Scots angel (“angel”), Saterland Frisian Ängel (“angel”), West Frisian ingel (“angel”), Dutch engel (“angel”), Low German engel (“angel”), German Engel (“angel”), Swedish ängel (“angel”), Icelandic engill (“angel”), Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌿𐍃 (aggilus, “angel, messenger”).

Noun

angel (plural angels)

  1. A divine and supernatural messenger from a deity, or other divine entity.
    • Ben Jonson
      The dear good angel of the Spring, / The nightingale.
  2. (Abrahamic tradition) The lowest order of angels, below virtues.
  3. A selfless person.
    You made me breakfast in bed, you little angel.
  4. (military slang, originally Royal Air Force) An altitude, measured in thousands of feet.
    Climb to angels sixty. (“ascend to 60,000 feet”)
  5. An affluent individual who provides capital for a startup, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity.
  6. A minister or pastor of a church, as in the Seven Asiatic churches.
    • Bible, Rev. ii. 1
      Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write.
  7. (obsolete) Attendant spirit; genius; demon.
    • a. 1606, Shakespeare, William, Macbeth, act 5, scene 4, lines 52–55:
      Despair thy charm, / And let the angel whom thou still hast served / Tell thee Macduff was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped.
  8. (historical) An ancient gold coin of England, bearing the figure of the archangel Michael, and varying in value from six shillings and eightpence to ten shillings.
  9. (colloquial, dated) An unidentified flying object detected by air traffic control radar.
  10. An angel investor.
    • 2011, OECD, Financing High-Growth Firms: The Role of Angel Investors
      “Latent” angels are defined as those who have not invested capital in the past 12 months, although they likely have invested knowledge in the process of reviewing potential investments.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Verb

angel (third-person singular simple present angels, present participle angeling, simple past and past participle angeled)

  1. (transitive, slang) To support by donating money.
    • 1984, “American Magazine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, volume 118, page 88:
      You've got to come to Chicago to meet Duell, and see Wilson, who's going to angel the show.

Etymology 2

Clipping of Angelman

Noun

angel (plural angels)

  1. (informal) A person who has Angelman syndrome.

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch angel, from Old Dutch *angul, from Proto-Germanic *angulaz.

Cognate with German Angel.

Pronunciation

  • audio(file)
  • IPA(key): /ˈɑŋəl/

Noun

angel m (plural angels, diminutive angeltje n)

  1. sting, dart (insect's organ)
  2. hook, fish-hook, angle

See also

Anagrams

German

Verb

angel

  1. Imperative singular of angeln.

Old Frisian

Noun

angel m

  1. angel

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

angel m (Cyrillic spelling ангел)

  1. (Kajkavian) angel
  2. Obsolete form of anđel.

Slovene

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈàːnɡɛl/
  • Tonal orthography: ángel

Noun

ángel m anim (genitive ángela, nominative plural ángeli)

  1. angel

Declension

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin angelus, from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος m (ángelos, “messenger; one that announces”).

Pronunciation

Noun

angel m (plural angylion or engyl)

  1. (religion) angel

Derived terms

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radicalsoftnasalh-prothesis
angel unchanged unchanged hangel
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

West Frisian

Noun

angel

  1. What a bee uses to sting when it feels threatened: a sting, a stinger.
  2. A fishing rod.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.