▪ I. † il, ile Obs.
[OE. iᵹil, {iacu}l = OHG. igil (MHG., Ger. igel), MLG., MDu., Du. egel, ON. igull, going back, with Lith. eż{yacu}s, Gr. ἐχῖνος, to a pre-Teut. *eghĭ-nos, -los, a deriv. of eghi-, Gr. ἔχι-ς adder.]
A hedgehog. (In OE. also a porcupine.)
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xxxv. 241 Se iil..ᵹewint he to anum cliewene and tihð his fet sua he inmest mæᵹ and ᵹehyt his heafod. Ibid., Ðonne bið ðæs iles heafud ᵹesewen. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 123/21 Istrix, se mara iᵹil. c 1050 Martyrol. in Cockayne Shrine 55 He [St. Sebastian] wæs ðara [stræla] swa full swa iᵹl..biþ byrsta. a 1200 Fragm. ælfric's Gram., etc. (Phillipps 1838) 8 Prikiende so piles on ile. |
Hence † iles pil, ilespil, ilspile [OE. p{iacu}l pointed stick, dart, prickle], prop. a spine of a hedgehog, but used as the name of the hedgehog itself.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 418 Ne bere ȝe non iren, ne here, ne irspiles [v.rr. yleslipes, ylespilles] felles. c 1305 St. Edmund 47 in E.E.P. (1862) 88 As ful as an illespyl is of pikes al aboute. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 339 Þere lakkeþ also..ilspi[les], [v.r. ilspiles; Caxton ylespiles], wontes and oþere venemous bestes. |
▪ II. il
obs. form of ill.