Meanings
-
1
noun
A spiritual being believed to serve God, often shown with wings.
The painting showed an angel with golden wings.
-
2
noun
A very kind, good, or helpful person.
Thank you for helping me move the furniture — you're an angel.
-
3
noun
A person who gives money to support a new business or project.
The film was only made possible thanks to a generous angel.
Thesaurus
Etymology
Two Baroque angels from southern Germany, from the mid-18th century From Middle English aungel, angel, from Old English anġel, either a modification of enġel after its etymon Latin angelus (through the intermediate of Proto-West Germanic *angil) or a reborrowing from the Latin, which is in turn from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”); later reinforced by Anglo-Norman angele, angel, from the same Latin source. The religious sense of the Greek word first appeared in the Septuagint as a translation of the Hebrew word מַלְאָךְ (malʾāḵ, “messenger”) or מַלְאָךְ יהוה (malʾāḵ YHWH, “messeng…