Word.ws English Dictionary

athel

/ˈæθəl/

athel adjective: noble, highborn.

Adjective

athel (comparative more athel, superlative most athel)

  1. (obsolete) noble, highborn
  2. (obsolete) excellent, splendid, fine
  3. (obsolete) genuine, sincere, devout

Noun (1)

athel (plural athels)

  1. (obsolete) A chief or lord.
    • To tell of his deir weid war doutles delite,
      And alse ter for to tell the travalis war tight.
      His name and his nobillay wes noght for to nyte;
      Thair wes na hathill sa heich, be half ane fute hicht.1508, Golagros and Gawane
    • Proclamation in that place,
      was plainely declared,
      That every hatell should him hie,
      in hast that he might,
      To Bolton in Geldowre,
      all in godly haste.c. 1515, The Scottish Field

Noun (2)

athel (plural athels)

  1. A kind of tamarisk native to northern Africa and the Middle East, Tamarix aphylla, planted widely elsewhere as a shade tree and a windbreak due to its tolerance of heat and of alkaline soils, but tending to become invasive outside of its native range.

Forms of athel

Adjective
comparativemore athel
superlativemost athel
alternative formathil
alternative formathill
alternative formaethel
alternative formæthel
alternative formethel
Noun
pluralathels

Origin of athel

From Middle English athel, ethel, hathel (“noble; nobleman, hero”), from Old English æþele (“noble”), from Proto-West Germanic *aþulī, from Proto-Germanic *aþulijaz (“of noble birth, noble”), from *aþalą (“nature; nobility”). Cognates Akin to Saterland Frisian eedel (“noble”), Oadel (“nobility”), West Frisian eal (“noble”), Dutch adel (“nobility”), edel (“noble”), German Adel (“nobility”), edel (“noble”), Yiddish אַדל (adl, “nobility”), איידל (eydl, “noble”), Elfdalian aðel (“noble; nobility”), Faroese aðal (“noble; nobility”), Icelandic aðal (“speciality, hallmark, characteristic”), aðall (“nobility”). Middle English form hathel due to conflation with Old English hæleþ (“hero”). See heleth.

From Arabic أَثَل (ʔaṯal).

Words formed from athel

Questions about athel

What does athel mean?
Athel means noble, highborn.
What part of speech is athel?
Athel can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce athel?
Athel is pronounced /ˈæθəl/.

Words near athel in the dictionary

  1. atheized
  2. atheizer
  3. atheizers
  4. atheizes
  5. atheizing
  6. athel
  7. atheldom
  8. athelia
  9. atheling
  10. athelings
  11. Athelney

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: athel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “athel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/athel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.