Athel

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Of noble birth or rank, a term from older English ; a salt-tolerant tamarisk tree, Tamarix aphylla, native to deserts of Africa and Asia
2. Archaic word meaning noble or aristocratic ; a hardy evergreen tree of the tamarisk family that thrives in dry, saline soils
3. Describing someone of high lineage in old English usage ; a desert-dwelling tamarisk species with feathery foliage and tolerance for salt

Etymology: The English word "athel" is a mostly archaic term meaning "noble," or a noble person, and its history is tangled with an unrelated word. Its direct ancestor is Old English "æþele," meaning "noble," which came from Proto-Germanic roots tied to the idea of "nature" or "nobility" by birth. The same Germanic stem gave modern German "Adel" and Dutch "adel," both meaning nobility, and Icelandic "aðall," which also carries the sense of a hallmark or characteristic. A second strand complicates the picture. In Middle English, the spelling "hathel" appeared, apparently because it was confused with Old English "hæleþ," meaning "hero" or "warrior." The two words were never the same in origin, but they merged in form and sense, so a noble could also be imagined as a champion. Some dictionaries also link the English form to Arabic "aṯal," the name of a tamarisk tree, but that connection is a separate and unrelated word, not the source of the English term.