ale
/eɪl/ noun, proper noun
Forms ales eale
- noun A beer or beerlike drink produced by so-called warm fermentation and unpressurized.
- noun (dated) A beer or beerlike drink made without hops.
- noun (UK, obsolete) A rural festival where ale is drunk.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English ale, from Old English ealu, ealo, from Proto-West Germanic *alu, from Proto-Germanic *alu (compare Dutch aal, Icelandic and Swedish öl (“beer”), Danish, Faroese, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk øl (“beer”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut- (“beer”), or *h₂elu- (“bitter”). Compare Russian ол (ol), Lithuanian alùs, Armenian օղի (ōġi); compare also Latin alum (“comfrey”), alūta (“tawed leather”), Ancient Greek ἀλύδοιμος (alúdoimos, “bitter”).
* As a Spanish surname, from Ale, probably a shortening of Alejandro.
* As an Italian surname, likely a variant of Aleo.
* As an English surname, from Middle English Ale, shortened from several names such as Alice, Allison, etc.
* Also as an English surname, variant of Hale.
* As a Dutch surname, from the personal name Aal, also shortened from names such as Alewijn, Albert.
* As a Nepali surname, from आले (āle). This surname is mostly found in Nepal.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An intoxicating liquor made from an infusion of malt by fermentation and the addition of a bitter, usually hops.
- noun A festival in English country places, so called from the liquor drunk. "At wakes and ales." B. Jonson."On ember eves and holy ales." Shak.
Etymology [AS. ealu, akin to Icel., Sw., and Dan. öl, Lith. alus a kind of beer, OSlav. ol beer. Cf. Ir. ol drink, drinking.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ale”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details