Link Centre Dictionary

ale

UK/eɪl/ US/ˈeɪl/ fairly common uk

noun

1.

a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume

Origin

From Middle English ale, from Old English ealu, ealo, from Proto-West Germanic *alu, from Proto-Germanic *alu (compare Dutch aal, Icelandic and Swedish öl (“beer”), Danish, Faroese, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk øl (“beer”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut- (“beer”), or *h₂elu- (“bitter”).

Phrases

  • Adam's ale
  • ale bench
  • ale conner
  • ale gallon
  • ale pole
  • ale post
  • ale silver
  • ale stake
  • from analogy with English Alison or Alexandra Diminutive of Alejandra, from analogy with English Alison or Alexandra

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.