Ælfred

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English Ælfrēd.

Proper noun

Ælfred

Alternative form of Alfred (“Alfred the Great”).
- 1845, J[ohann] M[artin] Lappenberg, translated by Benjamin Thorpe, “Ælfred the Great”, in A History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, […], volume II, London: John Murray, […], pages 84–85:
  But if men like Ælfred belong to every people and to every age in the circuit of the human mind, yet, next to the posterity of his own countrymen, the German,—whose speech and culture will by continued research gather many golden fruits sown by Ælfred,—with joyful pride may say, “The man is near of kin unto us.”
- 1873, Philip Vernon Smith, “The Executive”, in History of the English Institutions (Historical Handbooks), London; Oxford; Cambridge: Rivingtons, page 233:
  In either case, however, his [the king’s] individual capacities exercise a most important effect upon the government of the state. The magnitude of that effect in pre-Norman times may be estimated by the fact, that an Ælfred could save the nation, while an Æthelred could reduce it to the verge of ruin.
- 1883, John Richard Green, “The House of Godwine. 1035 to 1053.”, in The Conquest of England, London: Macmillan and Co., page 512:
  It was in the peace and order which this strict rule secured that the Flemings toiled their way to wealth. The counts understood and identified themselves with their people’s love of industry and freedom, and Arnulf the Old, our Ælfred’s grandson by the mother’s side, became the Ælfred of Flemish history.
- 2017, Max Adams, “Arrivals and departures”, in Ælfred’s Britain: War and Peace in the Viking Age, London: Head of Zeus Ltd, →ISBN, part II (Newton’s cradle, 879–918):
  Without the defensive and offensive advantages of garrisoned fortifications, Ælfred could not hope to expel such large forces; nor could he concentrate his attack on one for fear of allowing the other to penetrate west into Wessex with impunity.

Derived terms

Ælfredian

Related terms

Ælfric

References

“Alfred”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present: “or Ælfred”

Old English

Proper noun

Ælfrēd m

Alternative form of Ælfrǣd

References

Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “Ælfréd”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.