# angel

Pronunciation: say "AYN-juhl" /ˈeɪn.d͡ʒəl/

## Noun

1. A spiritual being believed to serve God or another divine being, especially as a messenger, often pictured with wings; in traditional Christian teaching, also one of the lowest of nine orders.
   - Simple: A spirit that serves God or carries God's messages, often shown with wings.
   - _According to the gospel, an angel announced the coming birth to Mary._
   - _The cathedral ceiling is crowded with angels in long, flowing robes._
2. A person who is very kind, good or innocent.
   - Simple: A very kind, good or innocent person, as in 'you're an angel for helping'.
   - _The nurse who sat with him all night was a true angel._
   - _Only an angel would give up her weekend to help total strangers._
3. A private person who puts money into a new business or a theatrical production, usually early on.
   - Simple: A person who gives their own money to help start a new business or put on a show.
   - _A local angel put in the first fifty thousand dollars to launch the company._
   - _Several angels backed the app before any venture firm showed interest._
4. A person, especially a woman or child, with youthful, wholesome, or radiant beauty.
   - Simple: A person, often a woman or child, with fresh and glowing beauty.
   - _Freshly bathed and wrapped in a white towel, the toddler looked like a little angel, all pink cheeks and shining curls._
   - _On the runway she looked an absolute angel, fresh and luminous._
5. An attendant spirit that accompanies a person, whether good or evil; a guiding genius or daemon.
   - Simple: A spirit that stays with a person, for good or for evil.
   - _The poet wrote of a dark angel that shadowed his every thought._
   - _Ancient writers held that each person had an angel guiding their fate._
8. An English gold coin of the 15th to 17th centuries showing the archangel Michael, whose value rose from six shillings eightpence to eleven shillings.
   - Simple: An old English gold coin showing the archangel Michael, used hundreds of years ago.
   - _The goldsmith weighed each angel carefully before accepting it as payment._
   - _The auction catalog listed three gold angels, each stamped with Saint Michael slaying the dragon._

## Verb

6. To financially back a production or venture by donating the money needed to cover its costs. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To give money to pay for a show or project.
   - _Several patrons agreed to angel the play through its opening season._
   - _He angeled the revival when its original funding suddenly collapsed._

## Noun

7. An unexplained echo on a radar screen, often caused by birds, insects, or atmospheric conditions. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A mark on a radar screen that air controllers cannot explain.
   - _An angel appeared on the radar for several seconds, then vanished._
   - _Controllers in the tower argued over what had caused the angels._
9. The presiding official of a Christian congregation, usually a bishop but sometimes a minister, especially in the Catholic Apostolic Church. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: In some old churches, the bishop or minister who leads the church.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A person who has Angelman syndrome, often written with a capital A.
- (noun) A flying altitude expressed in thousands of feet, used in military aviation.

## Origin

From Middle English aungel, angel, from Old English anġel: either the older enġel (from Proto-West Germanic *angil) reshaped after Latin angelus, or a fresh borrowing of that Latin word, which comes from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, "messenger"). Anglo-Norman angele later reinforced it. The religious sense began in the Greek of the Septuagint, translating Hebrew malʾāḵ ("messenger"). The church-official sense comes from reading the "angels" of the seven churches in Revelation as their bishops or ministers.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/angel (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).