Aetheling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A member of a royal family, specifically a prince or noble
2. A young nobleman or potential king in Anglo-Saxon history
3. A person of noble birth with a claim to rule or leadership within a kingdom

Etymology: Old English "æþeling" meant a man of noble birth, and the word was used for the sons and close kin of kings, the nearest thing the Anglo-Saxons had to a royal prince. Its root is "æþel", meaning noble lineage, which also gave English the modern word "noble" in its older sense of high birth. The "-ing" ending marks a person connected to something, so the word literally means one belonging to a noble stock. The word survived into Middle English as "atheling", and by then it was a term for a prince of the royal house, often one who might be expected to inherit the throne. Its Germanic relatives, such as the Old High German "edeling", show the same pattern of noble descent. English later borrowed a doublet, "edling", which appears in the same family of words. The form "aetheling" is an alternative spelling of "atheling", and both are used for the same historical sense. Both descend from the Old English word rather than from any later coinage.