An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Angel

by Friedrich Kluge

Angel, masculine and feminine, from the equivalent Middle High German angel, masculine, feminine, ‘sting, fish-hook, hinge of a door,’ Old High German angul, masculine. ‘sting, point, fish-hook’; diminutive of Old High German ango, ‘sting, door hinge,’ Middle High German ange, ‘fish-hook, door hinge.’ Compare Anglo-Saxon ongel, English angle, Anglo-Saxon onga, ‘sting,’ Old Icelandic ǫngull ‘fish-hook,’ allied to ange, ‘sting, point’ (Alemannian angel, ‘bee sting,’ angelmuck, ‘stinging fly’). The supposition that the primitively and widely diffused cognates are borrowed from Latin angulus, ‘angle, corner,’ is untenable; Old Bulgarian ąglŭ, English angle, Anglo-Saxon angul, ‘angle, corner,’ are, however, primitively allied to it; so too England, Angelsachsen. The root idea of the Teutonic cognates is ‘pointed.’ An Aryan root onk, ‘to be pointed,’ also lies at the base of Latin uncus, Greek ὄγκος, ὄγκινος, ‘barb,’ ἄγκιστρον, ‘fish-hook,’ Sanscrit aṅka, ‘hook,’ Osset. ängur, ‘hook, hinge,’ Old Irish écad, hook.’