dial. Also 1 ysle, 4 his-, huysseles, 5 iselle, isyl, ysyle, 6 Sc. isill, 8–9 Sc. aizle. [OE. ysle (app. wk. fem.), cogn. w. ON. usli wk. masc., embers, perh. f. Aryan root *eus to burn, whence L. ūr-ĕre. The mod. forms easle (17th c. ē·z’l), aizle, are phonetically anomalous.] Hot ashes or cinders; see quot.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 2553 (Gr.). Bearwas wurdon to ascan and to yslan.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 146. Fauilla, ysle.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 171. De falemetches, from hiseles [v.r. huysseles].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 266. Isyl of fyre, fauilla.
c. 1483. Cath. Angl., Aiselle, favilla, or a sperke.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. i. 125. Had sytten still, amang the assys cauld And lattyr isillys of thar kynd cuntre.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds., Pref. 4 (E. D. S.). We in Essex use Easles for the hot embers (or as it were burning coals) of straw only.
1785. Burns, Halloween, xiii. She fuff’t her pipe wi’ sic a lunt … An aizle brunt Her braw new worset apron.
1874. N. & Q., 10 Oct., 290. So as to receive and enclose the falling aizle, as well as the wax or tallow of the candle.
Hence † easle-cake, a cake baked in the ashes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 261. Isylkake, or chesekake, or eykake bakyne vndyr askys.
