athel

adj

1. (obsolete)noble, highborn
2. (obsolete)excellent, splendid, fine
3. (obsolete)genuine, sincere, devout

noun

1. (obsolete)A chief or lord.

   “To tell of his deir weid war doutles delite, And alse ter for to tell the travalis war tight. His name and his nobillay wes noght for to nyte; Thair wes na hathill sa heich, be half ane fute hicht.”

   “Proclamation in that place, was plainely declared, That every hatell should him hie, in hast that he might, To Bolton in Geldowre, all in godly haste.”

2. A kind of tamarisk native to northern Africa and the Middle East, Tamarix aphylla, planted widely elsewhere as a shade tree and a windbreak due to its tolerance of heat and of alkaline soils, but tending to become invasive outside of its native range.