Etymology: Cognate with Old Icelandic afl strength, Norwegian avl farming, breeding, (Nynorsk) strength, Old Swedish afl , affwel , awel strength, gain, produce, farming (Swedish afvel , avel rearing, breeding, stock, (regional) strength), Old Danish affl gain, produce (Danish avl produce, farming, breeding), and probably also with early modern German afel suppurating matter from an ulcer, etc., (also more generally) inflammation (early 15th cent.; German regional (chiefly Bavaria, Austria) afel ), all probably < the same Indo-European base (with different suffix) as classical Latin opus work (see opus n.); in later use probably reinforced by or reborrowed < early Scandinavian. Compare later avel v.¹, aveled adj.The Old English form abal (attested in the Old English translation of the fragmentary Old Saxon poem Genesis (not extant at this point): see quot. OE¹) may show the orthographic influence of an unattested Old Saxon cognate. In Old English the word also occurs as the second element of the compound woruld-afol worldly or secular power, also as a count noun ( < world n. + avel n.¹), attested only in Wulfstan:OE Wulfstan Canons of Edgar (Corpus Cambr.) (1972) vi. 3 And riht is þæt preosta gehwylc on sinode gecyðe gyf he on his scriftscyre ænine man wite Gode oferhyre, oþðon on heafodleahtrum yfele befallen, þe he to bote gebigean ne mæge oððe ne durre for woruldafole.OE Wulfstan False Gods (Hatton 113) (1957) 222 Entas & strece woruldmen þe mihtige wurdan on woruldafelum & egesfulle wæran þa hwyle þe hy leofedon.

Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps the reflex of a borrowing of an unattested early Scandinavian cognate of ail n.¹; for the attested Scandinavian forms see awn n. Perhaps compare earlier haw n.² 4. Surv. Eng. Dial. records forms of the word from Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex.

Etymology: Either (i) the reflex of an unattested Old English verb *afolian , cognate with Old High German avalōn to busy oneself, toil (also in prefixed form gi-avalōn to make an effort, strive, to work at), Old Icelandic afla to gain, acquire, earn, to procure, obtain, to beget, to perform, accomplish, be capable of, Norwegian avle to cultivate, produce, to beget, breed, to create, bring into being, Old Swedish afla to gain, acquire, earn, to beget, conceive, to bring into being (Swedish avla , afla to beget, breed, (regional) to gain, acquire, earn, to move (a thing) with effort, to work at), Old Danish aflæ to gain, acquire, earn, to beget (Danish avle to cultivate, produce, to beget, breed) < the same Germanic base as avel n.¹; or (ii) directly < early Scandinavian (compare the Scandinavian forms listed above). Compare earlier aveled adj., avel n.¹The following example may perhaps show a prefixed form (see y- prefix) of the otherwise unattested Old English verb (in sense ‘to gain possession of’):OE Aldhelm Glosses (Royal 6 A.vi) in A. S. Napier Old Eng. Glosses (1900) 158/2 Usurpans, geauligende [perh. read geahniende].However, Napier's proposed emendation to geahniende (i.e. a form of geāgnian i-ahnie v.) is attractive, and is supported by alternative glosses of Aldhelm's usurpans (and usurpare) in MSS Brussels 1650 and Digby 146 (and Royal 7 D.xxiv).

Etymology: < avel n.²