Angel

About 2 pages (472 words)

Angel Summary

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A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address

Angel

A term which likens the person being addressed to a spiritual being who acts as a divine messenger, if one interprets it literally, that is. More usually it reflects the speaker’s reaction to the charm and innocence of the other person, who is often a young child or a love-partner.

Romeo calls Juliet his ‘bright angel’, while Tom Jones, in Henry Fielding’s novel of that name, assails his Sophia with ‘my charming angel’, ‘my divine angel’, ‘my angel’. That was perhaps suitable for an eighteenth-century miss, but her twentieth-century counterpart would perhaps think such terms excessive.

It is noticeable that in a 1988 BBC television series which features a father who hopelessly spoils his daughter, he addresses her as ‘my angel’ several times each episode. ‘Angel’ was given full name status by the thirteenth century and is to be found in many Christian countries in forms such as Angelo and Angela.

Neither the name or vocative appealed to Mr Weller Senior, in The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens. At one point he says to his son: ‘Wot’s the good o’ callin’ a young ‘ooman a Wenus or a angel, Sammy?’ ‘Ah! what, indeed?’ replies Sam, ‘You might jist as well call her a griffin, or a unicorn, or a king’s arms at once, which is wery well known to be a col-lection o’ fabulous animals.’ British readers would recognize in this an allusion to popular pub names, of which the Angel is one. The Wellers may be right in saying that a woman should not be called ‘angel’, but Jerome K.Jerome advanced powerful arguments for using the term to a baby in his Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow:

If you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call her dear baby ‘it’.

Your best plan is to address the article as ‘little angel’. The noun ‘angel’ being of common gender suits the case admirably, and the epithet is sure of being favourably received. ‘Pet’ or ‘beauty’ are useful for variety’s sake, but ‘angel’ is the term that brings you the greatest credit for sense and good feeling. The word should be preceded by a short giggle, and accompanied by as much smile as possible.

Addressed to adults. angel is used as an intimate term of address in The Bell, by Iris Murdoch and The Half Hunter, by John Sherwood. The latter novel also has ‘my angel’ used between lovers. ‘My angel’ occurs again in The Pumpkin Eater, by Penelope Mortimer. ‘Darling angel’, when it is used in The Country Girls, by Edna O’Brien, is merely friendly rather than intimate, the speaker being one who makes little distinction between acquaintances and intimate friends when it comes to vocative usage.

This is the complete article, containing 472 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).