View source for Angel - angle

'''Angel''' and '''angle''' are two words that can be confused, in reading and by typing.  Both words exist, so a spellchecker will not mark one of them as wrong. So be sure that you have the one you mean. They are distinguished by pronunciation and meanings.
*An '''angel''' (the '-g-' + '-e-' combination is pronounced with a 'soft '-g-', like a '-j-'; the initial '-a-' is like that in 'day' and 'say'; {{IPA|ˈeɪndʒ əl}}) is a supernatural being mentioned in many religions. The word is derived from the [[Greek]] ἅγγελος ('a[n]gelos'), via [[Latin]] ''angelus'', meaning 'a messenger'. An '''angel''' is 'a messenger from God'. Other meanings of the word follow this main meaning. For example, the [[angel (coin)|mediaeval coin called 'an angel']] was so called because it had a picture of the (arch)angel Michael killing a dragon stamped on it.
::Medieval Christianity had a whole section of theology devoted to angels called (logically enough) '''angelology'''. This recognized nine '''orders''' (or ranks) of angels, divided into three hierarchies, the first consisting of '''cherubim''', '''seraphim''' and '''thrones'''; the second of '''dominations''', '''virtues''' and '''powers'''; and the third of '''principalities''', '''archangels''' and '''angels'''. ''[[OED]]'' ascribes the theory to Dionysius the Areopagite (Pseudo-Dionysius) in his treatise ''Celestial Hierarchies'' of the 5th century CE. 
*'''Angle''' (pronounced with an '-a-' like that in 'can' and 'man' and a 'hard' '-g-' as in 'get'; {{IPA|ˈæŋ gəl}}) has several meanings.  In academic work, you are most likely to see it as 
**a mathematical treatment of a 'corner': a measurement of a divergence of direction between two lines, traditionally measured in degrees. Various [[figurative]] usages derive from this, and one (disputed) historical one:
***in one of the earliest recorded [[cleric]]al jokes, Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) who is said to have seen blond, blue-eyed slaves and asked where they came from. On being told they were 'Angles' (''Angli'' in Latin), he replied "''Non Angli, sed angeli''" ("Not Angles, but angels"). It would be an error nowadays to confuse a face 'like an angel' (good) with a face 'like an angle' (not good).
::::The '''Angles''' are the [[Germanic]] people who, along with the Saxons, migrated to Britain during the 5th and 6th centuries [[CE]]. ''[[OED]]'' gives the etymology as being from "the people of Angul, -ol, -el, ON. Ã–ngull ... a district of Holstein, so called from its shape, the word being the same as ANGLE n.1". The word is in the combination [[Anglo-Saxon]], and is the source of '''England''' and '''English''', as well as East Anglia. For more on the '''Angles''' and their language, go to [[Old English]].

An '''angle''' is also an archaic word for a 'hook', used most commonly as a [[verb (word class)|verb]] to mean 'to catch fish, mostly as a sport or pastime' - the [[etymological root|root]] of the [[agent noun]] '''angler''', and [[Verbal noun]] '''angling'''. There is an old-fashioned mock-pompous [[circumlocution]] for anglers: 'brothers of the '''angle''''.
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