# etymology of angel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 28, 2002, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-angel/145324 "2002-12-28T06:28:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-angel/145324/1 "2002-12-28T06:28:41Z")
In this [staff report](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mangels.html) Dex gives the etymology of angle as > [@](#): > > The English word “angel” derives from the Sanskrit _angiras_ through the Greek _angelos_ (“messenger”). This is not correct. I doubt if there’s a single English word that comes from Sanskrit by way of Greek. Merriam-Webster gives the derivation as being from Greek and nothing at all about Sanskrit. Perhaps some other dictionary mentions the Sanskrit word, but almost certainly only as a cognate, not as the actual source. * * * I have fixed the link. – CKDH ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-angel/145324/2 "2002-12-28T10:34:42Z")
Here is what the Concise Oxford Dictionary has to say: > [@](#): > > angel // n. > 1 a an attendant or messenger of God. b a conventional representation of this in human form with wings. c an attendant spirit (evil angel; guardian angel). d a member of the lowest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy (see order n. 19). > 2 a a very virtuous person. b an obliging person (be an angel and answer the door). > 3 a messenger or bringer of something (angel of death; angel of mercy). > 4 an old English coin bearing the figure of the archangel Michael piercing the dragon. > 5 slang a financial backer of an enterprise, esp. in the theatre. > 6 an unexplained radar echo.\*\* > [Old English engel or Old French angele, via ecclesiastical Latin angelus from Greek aggelos ‘messenger’] \*\* Hmm - no Sanskrit there. Oh how I wish I had the real enormous O.E.D. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-angel/145324/3 "2002-12-28T14:55:04Z")
“Aggelos” (in Greek, “gg” is pronounced like “ng” in “finger”) is certainly the source. Around the time of Christ, the entire Mediterranean world spoke Greek, the way all the world speaks English today. Greek was the language of most Jews outside of Judea, and “aggelos” was already the established translation of Hebrew “malak”. Naturally, Greek became the language of the primitive Church. (The Roman Empire was new; it was only several centuries later that Latin became Top Language, and only in the West.) The large OED says nothing about Sanskrit. In theory, since Sanskrit was still spoken in Alexander’s time, the word _could_ have gotten into Greek that way, but my Abridged Liddel and Scott gives “aggelos” and many related words separate dialectal forms, which would be unlikely for a word so late. It also lists “aggaros” as a Persian word adopted into Greek, referring to a member of the Persian mounted courier service (the famous US Post Office motto derives from Herodotus’ description of these men), so I suspect this is a root widespread through the eastern Indo-European languages. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-angel/145324/4 "2002-12-29T00:32:50Z")
I think **dtilque’s** link to Dex’s column doesn’t work. An active link is [here](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mangels.html) All of my references agree that Sanskrit just doesn’t enter into the picture. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-angel/145324/5 "2002-12-29T01:11:32Z")
Sigh. I just took it from one of my sources, and didn’t check it separately. I suspect that it would have been better to say that there is a similar word in Sanskrit and in Greek, rather than implying that the Greek came from the Sanskrit.