Obs. Forms: 1 ? wearʓincel, 4–5 variangel, were-, weryangle, wayryngle, 4, 7–8 waryangle, 6–9 wariangle, 6 warriangle, 7 warwinckle, wierangle, -engel, wirrangle. [? OE. wearʓincel shrike (Sweet: authority not known). Cf. OHG. (MHG.) warchengil, wargengel, wargingel, etc. ‘cruricula,’ etc. (Steinmeyer-Sievers, Diefenbach), G. wargengel, warkengel (with very many local variants due to different etymologizing alterations; as würgengel, quasi ‘destroying angel’). Cf. also MLG. worgel, OHG. (MHG.) wargil, warigel, wergil, worgel (Bavarian dial. wörgl shrike, Salzburg wörgel greenfinch). All these forms appear to be diminutives of OTeut. *wargo-z murderer: see WARY sb.
The OE. word, if genuine, perh. preserves most nearly the original form. For the suffix compare OE. húsincel, túnincel, þéowincel, etc. (all without umlaut). Cf. OHG. -inklî(n. It remains, however, very remarkable that in G. or in later E. there is no trace of -k forms with the single exception of warwinckle in quot. 1618. As there is no evidence of the word later until Chaucer, the ME. and later forms are perhaps in part due to, or influenced by, some continental form. The prevalent form of the ending, -angle, -ingle, is perh. partly due to association with HANG v. (owing to the habits of the shrike). In early times the first element would assist this etymology: cf. OE. wearʓtréo, WARYTRE gallows. Such an association was apparently present in early G.: cf. such forms as wurgelhâch, wurgelhâhe, warchengil, warkengel, etc.]
1. A name formerly given to the Shrike or Butcher-bird, either the (Great or European) Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) or the smaller red-backed Shrike (L. collurio). See SHRIKE sb.2
Apart from the doubtful OE. form and two obscure passages in ME. the evidence for the existence of the word is almost solely drawn from dictionaries, glossaries and dialect collections of doubtful value, some of which perh. merely echo quot. 1598.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Friar’s T., 110. This Somonour, that was as ful of Iangles, As ful of venym been thise waryangles.
1598. Speght, Chaucer’s Wks., Annot. Bbbb v. Warriangles Be a kind of birdes full of noyse and very rauenous, preying vpon others, which when they haue taken, they vse to hang vpon a thorne or pricke, & teare them in pieces and deuoure them. And the common opinion is, that the thorne wherupon they thus fasten them and eate them, is afterward poysonsome. In Staffordshire and Shropshire the name is common.
1611. Cotgr., Ancrouëlle, a Shrike, Ninmurder, Wariangle.
1618. Latham, 2nd Bk. Falconrie, 144. The Warwinckle which is a pyed bird, and vses most in pastur-ground, or other champane places whereas growes great and tall bushes.
1674. Ray, Collect., Eng. Birds, 83. The great Butcher-bird called in the Peak of Derbyshire Wirrangle, Lanius cinereus major. Ibid. (1678), Willughby’s Ornith., II. xi. 87. This Bird in the North of England is called a Wierangle, a name, it seems, common to us with the Germans, who (as Gesner witnesseth) about Strasburgh, Franckfort, and elsewhere, call it Werkengel or Warkangel.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 229. The Butcher-bird or Wierangel, here called the Shriek or French-Pye.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 47. Red-backed shrike, Butcher bird, Murdering bird, Ninekiller, Weirangle or Wariangle (Yorkshire).
2. Used as a term of contemptuous abuse. rare–1.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 1706. A wirlyng, a wayryngle [Dubl. MS. warlow], a wawil-eȝid shrewe.
