Etymology

ale

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Today it means: A beer or beerlike drink produced by so-called warm fermentation and unpressurized. Full definition →

Middle English ale ← Old English ealu ← Proto-West Germanic *alu
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ale · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂elut-
  2. Proto-Germanic*alu
  3. Proto-West Germanic*alu
  4. Old Englishealu
  5. Middle Englishale
  6. English todayale

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”).

Ale · proper noun2

  1. Middle English · derived fromAle
  2. English todayAle

* 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. Compare Al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.