Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AD'EL-ING, n.

A title of honor, given by our Saxon ancestors to the children of princes, and to young nobles. It is composed of adel or rather æthel, the Teutonic term for noble, illustrious, and ling, young, posterity. Spelman. Sw. adelig; D. edel; Ger. edel and adelig, noble; Sp. hidalgo. We observe the term in many Saxon names of princes, as Ethel-wolf, noble wolf, or noble help, Ethel-bald, noble bold, Ethel-bert, noble brightness. Ar. أَثَلَ athala, to be well rooted, to be of noble stock or birth. Class Dl.