What does the word "angel" originally mean in Latin?
An angel is a supernatural being in various religions and mythologies.
The word angel arrives in modern English from Old English engel (with a hard g) and the Old French angele. Both of these derive from Late Latin angelus (literally "messenger"), which in turn was borrowed from Late Greek ἄγγελος angelos. Additionally, per Dutch linguist R. S. P. Beekes, ángelos itself may be "an Oriental loan, like ἄγγαρος (ángaros, 'Persian mounted courier')." Perhaps then, the word's earliest form is Mycenaean a-ke-ro, attested in Linear B syllabic script.
The rendering of "ángelos" is the Septuagint's default translation of the Biblical Hebrew term malʼākh, denoting simply "messenger" without connoting its nature. In the Latin Vulgate, this meaning becomes bifurcated: when malʼākh or ángelos is supposed to denote a human messenger, words like nuntius or legatus are applied. If the word refers to some supernatural being, the word angelus appears. Such differentiation has been taken over by later vernacular translations of the Bible, early Christian and Jewish exegetes and eventually modern scholars.
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org
ADVERTISEMENT