Forms: 1–4 eorl, 2 ærl, 3 ȝierl, 3–6 erl, (4 erldi, erld, erel, errel, 5 erell, errille), 4–6 ȝerl, 5–7 erle, 5 urle, ȝorle, 6–7 yerle, earle, 9 Sc. yerl, 7– earl. See also JARL, YARL. [OE. eorl = OSax. erl (= sense 1 b below), ON. earl, later iarl, nobleman, chieftain:—OTeut. *erlo-z.
Some scholars refer the word to the Aryan root *ers, comparing Gr. ἔρσην, ἄρυην male; cf. also EARNEST a. and sb.1 The ON. runic spelling erilaR seems however unfavorable to this view. The notion that eorl is a corruption of ealdor is wholly untenable.]
† 1. A man of noble rank, as distinguished from a ceorl, CHURL, or ordinary freeman. Only in OE.
a. 616[?]. Laws of Ethelbert, ¶ 13. Gif on eorles tune man mannan ofsleæhþ xii scillinga ʓebete.
a. 1000. Byrhtnoth, 132. Eode swa anræd eorl to þam ceorle.
† b. In OE. poetry used for: A warrior, a brave man, a man generally.
Beowulf, 357. Þær Hroðgar sæt … mid his eorla ʓedriht.
a. 1000. Riddles, xlvii. 6 (Gr.). Ealra wæron fife eorla and idesa.
a. 1000. Crist, 546 (Gr.). Hwite cwoman eorla eadgiefan englas togeanes.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 1844. Þa com ellenrof eorl siðian Abraham.
† 2. In late OE.: A Danish under-king (see JARL); hence (under Cnut and his successors) the viceroy or governor of one of the great divisions of England, Wessex, Northumbria, Mercia, etc. (In this sense practically synonymous with the native title of ALDERMAN.) Obs. exc. Hist.
c. 906. Laws of Edw. & Guthrum, ¶ 12. Gif man ʓehadodne … forræde … Þonne sceal him cyng beon oþþon eorl þær on lande … for mæʓ and for mund boran.
c. 1042. Chart. Leofric, in Cod. Dipl., IV. 72. Leofric eorl and his ʓebedda habbað ʓeunnen twa land for Godes lufan.
a. 1123. O. E. Chron. (Laud), an. 1048. Man sette þa Odda to eorle ofer Defenascire, & ofer Sumersæton, [etc.].
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., I. iii. 72. Canute … created Thurkill earl or duke of East Anglia.
3. After the Norman Conquest regarded as equivalent to the Lat. comes COUNT.
† a. generally. Applied to all feudal nobles and princes bearing the Romanic title of Count; also Hist. to the officers called comites under the later Roman empire. In ME. often used as the typical designation of a great noble. Obs. (In Hist. use COUNT is now always employed in this sense.)
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 231. Se hlaford into þar halle come, mid his dierewurd ȝeferede, mid ærlen and aldren.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 324, in Trin. Coll. Hom., 230. We mihten habben more … þan ȝierles and kinges.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13270. Noght o riche kinges kin Ne of erel þan gret baron.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 386. Dukis & erlis, barons & knyȝtis.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 251. Rouland eorl of þe paleys.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 4068. Ascalaphus, a skathil duke … And Helminus, a hede vrle, hadyn to-gedur Thretty shippes.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 269. Duke, Errelle, and eke Baroun.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 141. Erle, lorde, comes.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, E vj. The sone of an erle of that land.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., I. 103/2. Nectaridus one of the Emperoures house Earle of the Sea coast hauyng charge of the partyes towardes the Sea, was slayne.
1655. M. Carter, Hon. Rediv., 51. We used the word Earl for gentle or noble.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), I. 354. It [Christianity] wrested, in France, enormous possessions out of the hands of the Earls and Barons.
b. spec. In England, Scotland, and Ireland, the title of a specific order of rank, corresponding to Count in the nobility of other European nations; in the modern peerage an earl ranks next below a marquis, and next above a viscount.
Under the Norman kings the title of earl (count) implied the governorship or the feudal lordship of a COUNTY; subsequently the territorial designation (Earl of Derby, of Leicester) became, as in other degrees of the peerage, purely formal, and in some cases a surname is used instead (as Earl Brownlow, Earl Cowper). When a duke or a marquis has an earldom as his second title, this is ‘by courtesy’ given to his eldest son: thus the heir of the Duke of Northumberland is Earl Percy, of the Marquis of Winchester, the Earl of Wiltshire.
a. 1123. O. E. Chron., an. 1101. Þurh þone eorl Rodbert of Normandie þe mid unfriðe hider to lande fundode. Ibid. (1140). On þis ʓær wolde þe king Stephne tæcen Rodbert eorl of Gloucestre.
1297. R. Glouc., 523. He … bileuede the erl marschal & the erl of Chestre there.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 234. Twa Erlis alsua with him war.
1473. Warkw., Chron., 1. Lord Stafforde was made Erle of Devynshire.
1536. Wriothesley, Chron. (1875), I. 41. Moste of the Kings Councell, as erles, lordes and nobles of this realme.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars, 54. Sir John Dudley that was amrelle of the see was made yerle of Warwyk.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., II. ii. 79. The Earle of Warwick Shall one day make the Duke of Yorke a King.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., I. I. xii. 310. An earl is a title of nobility.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., 293. Levied an armed regiment under the Yerl of Angus.
† 4. A director, superintendent.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 382/1. Thenne the erle of the sacrefyses gaue moche money.
5. Comb. † earl-right. (Only in OE. and Hist.)
c. 1030. Laws of Cnut, in Thorpe, Laws, 81. Gif þeʓen ʓeþeah þæt he wearð to eorle þonne wæs he syþþan eorl-rihtes weorðe.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. v. 80. The … man who has ‘thriven to eorl-right,’ or who has his forty hides.
