† Englen.

Etymology: Cognate with Old Icelandic Englar (compare also Old High German Angil- , Engil- , an element in personal names) < Angel (Danish Angel , German Angeln ), the name of a district in Schleswig in northern Germany and southern Denmark, believed to be the original home of the Angles (see Angle n.³), of uncertain origin, but often suggested to derive ultimately < the same Germanic base as angle n.¹ on account of its shape. Compare later Angle n.³, East Angle n., and East Anglian adj.The β. forms show alteration either after the place name (and combining form: see below) or after classical Latin Anglus Angle n.³ In Old English usually strong masculine Engle (i -stem, the declensional class typical for ethnonyms); however, a rare weak masculine by-form Englan is also occasionally attested. Angel , the name of the continental home of the Angles, occurs as a place name in English contexts from Old English onwards (in Old English as Angel , Ongel , in Middle English as Angle ; in modern use also commonly Angeln after the German form of the name). Frequently in Old English as a combining form, sometimes in the sense ‘of or relating to the Angles (either on the continent or in England)’, but more commonly in the sense ‘of or relating to the English people or England’ (compare senses 1 and 2), as Angelcyning king of the English, Angelcynn the English people, (rare) the Angles, Angelfolc the English people, Angelþēod the English people, (rare) the Angles (compare Englethede n. at Compounds), etc.