[ad. L. Angl-us, pl. Angl-i (Tacitus), a. OTeut. *angli-, in OE. regularly ęngle (occas., after L., Angle), the people of Angul, -ol, -el, ON. Öngull (‘illa patria quæ Angulus dicitur,’ Bæda) a district of Holstein, so called from its shape, the word being the same as ANGLE sb.1; whence also Angul-cynn, Angul-þéod, orig. ‘the race or people of Angul’; afterwards, the race of this and kindred descent in Britain, the ‘English’ race.]
1. pl. One of the Low-German tribes that settled in Britain, where they formed the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, and finally gave their name to the whole ‘English’ people.
c. 885. K. Ælfred, Bæda, IV. xxvi. Þæt land, ðætte Angle ǽr hæfdon.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., V. 116. The Angles, from whom the majority of the English derive their blood, and the whole their name.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. 24. North of the Thames lay the three great Kingdoms of the Angles.
2. pl. Rhetorically for: The English.
1823. Byron, Juan, XIV. xxxviii. All foreigners excel The serious Angles in the eloquence Of pantomine.
