var. form of ATHEL a. Obs.
1. = ATHEL A. 2.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 5. [We] understonden him on ure eðele bede. Ibid., 125. To bisechen … mid eðele worde and edie.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 172. Þeos þrelles beoð hire eðele vif wittes.
2. Comb., as ethelborn a., nobly born (Hist. after OE. phrase æþele ʓeboren).
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), II. App. 359. The prejudices of the ethelborn Saxons.
1844. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., x. (1862), 140. An ethel born or noble woman.
