atheling Obs. exc. Hist.
(ˈæθəlɪŋ)
Also 1–3 æðeling, 4–8 adelyng, -ing, 9 etheling, ætheling.
[OE. æðeling, f. æðel noble family + -ing belonging to; = OS. eđiling, OFris. etheling, edling, OHG. adaling. (In med.L. adal-, adelingus.)]
A member of a noble family, a prince, lord, baron; in OE. poetry often used in pl. for ‘men’ (viri); in later writers often restricted as a historical term to a prince of the blood royal, or even to the heir apparent to the throne.
| a 1000 Crist (Gr.) 158 Crist nerᵹende! wuldres æðeling! ― Gen. (Gr.) 1161 Héht him céosan æðelingas. 1057 O.E. Chron. (Laud), On þisum ᵹeare com ædward æðeling Eadmundes sunu cynges hider to lande. 1205 Lay. 5375 Heo axeden aðelinges war leye þa kinges. 1297 R. Glouc. 354 Þe kunde eir, þe ȝonge chyld, Edgar Aþelyng. Wo so were next kyng bykunde, me clupeþ hym Aþelyng. 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. I. 277 Comounliche he þat comeþ of kynges blood is i-cleped Adelyngus. 1756 Nugent Montesquieu's Spir. Laws xxx. xix. (1758) II. 384 Six hundred sous for the murder of an adeling. 1844 Lingard Anglo-S. Ch. (1858) I. ii. 91 Ethelings, or princes of the blood. 1861 Hook Lives Abps. I. iii. 142 In the Atheling Alchfrid, Wilfrid had a friend. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. 493 The ætheling was taken to Ely. |