angel

• enPR: ānʹjəl, IPA^(key): /ˈeɪn.dʒəl/

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From Middle English angel, aungel, ængel, engel, from Anglo-Norman angele, angle and Old English ænġel, enġel, 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”).

Use of the term in some churches to refer to a church official derives from interpreting the "angels" of the Seven churches of Asia in Revelation as being bishops or ministers rather than angelic beings.

angel (plural angels)

1. An incorporeal and sometimes divine messenger from a deity, or other divine entity, often depicted in art as a youthful winged figure in flowing robes.
   • Ben Jonson

     The dear good angel of the Spring, / The nightingale.

2. (Abrahamic tradition) One of the lowest order of such beings, below virtues.
3. A person having the qualities attributed to angels, such as purity or selflessness.

   You made me breakfast in bed, you little angel.

4. (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.

5. (possibly obsolete) An official (a bishop, or sometimes a minister) who heads a Christian church, especially a Catholic Apostolic church.
   • 1817, Thomas Stackhouse, A history of the holy Bible, corrected and improved by G. Gleig, page 504:

     An apostle, or angel, or bishop, as he is now called, resided with a college of presbyters about him, in every considerable city of the Roman empire; to that angel or bishop, was committed the pastoral care of all the Christian in the city and its suburbs, exending as far on all sides as the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate extended;

   • 1832 March, Edward Irving, speech before the Presbytery of London, quoted in 1862, Margaret Oliphant, The Life of Edward Irving, Minister of the National Scotch Church, London: Illustrated by His Journals and Correspondence, page 429:

     [...] the head of that Church, in whose place I stand in my Church, and in whose place no other standeth (the elders and deacons have their place, but this belongeth to the angel or minister of the Church), and the Lord commendeth him for trying ...

   • 1878, Edward Miller, The History and Doctrines of Irvingism Or of the So-called Catholic and Apostolic Church, § 9 Pastors, page 50 (discussing the structure of the early Christian church and of the Catholic Apostolic Church):

     The second or highest grade consists of the Angels or Bishops of Churches. Each Church has its Angel, who has (1) the higher supervision and care of all the flock, (2) the supervision and care of the Priests under him, and (3) the care of the Church itself.

6. (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.
7. (military slang, originally Royal Air Force) An altitude, measured in thousands of feet.

   Climb to angels sixty. (“ascend to 60,000 feet”)

8. (colloquial, dated) An unidentified flying object detected by air traffic control radar.
9. An affluent individual who provides capital for a startup, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity; 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.

• (spiritual messenger): errand-ghost (rare)

• cherub, minion, power, principality, seraph, throne

• Jamaican Creole: aynjel
• → Chinese: 安琪兒 (ānqí'ér)
• → Hawaiian: ʻānela
• → Lingala: anjelu, anzelu
• → Malagasy: anjely
• → Xhosa: ingelosi
• → Zulu: ingelosi

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.

Clipping of Angelman

angel (plural angels)

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

• -angle, Angle, Elgan, Galen, Legan, Nagle, agnel, angle, genal, glean, lenga

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

Cognate with German Angel.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑŋəl/

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• Hyphenation: an‧gel
• Rhymes: -ɑŋəl

angel m (plural angels, diminutive angeltje n)

1. sting, dart (insect's organ)
2. hook, fish-hook, angle
3. tang (extension of a tool or weapon's head that is inserted in a handle)
4. (rare, obsolete) a snake's tongue

• gifangel
• voetangel

• Afrikaans: angel

• hengel

• algen, lagen, lange, nagel

angel

1. Imperative singular of angeln.

angel

1. (anatomy) body

angel

1. Alternative form of aungel

• engel

angel m

1. angel

• Saterland Frisian: Engel
• West Frisian: ingel

angel m (Cyrillic spelling ангел)

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

• IPA^(key): /àːnɡɛl/

ángel m anim

1. angel

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

• (North Wales) (standard) (colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈaŋɛl/
  • (North Wales) (colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈaŋal/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈaŋɛl/

angel m (plural angylion or engyl)

1. (religion) angel

• angyles

From Old Frisian *angel, from Proto-Germanic *angulaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enk-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈaŋəl/

angel c (plural angels, diminutive angeltsje)

1. sting, stinger (insect's organ)
2. fishing rod

• “angel (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011