spiritual beings believed to be messengers or helpers of God, often described as having wings and halos.
From Old English 'engel' derived from Latin 'angelus,' itself from Greek 'angelos' meaning messenger. The religious meaning comes from the Greek word's original use for human messengers before the spiritual meaning developed.
The word 'angel' literally just means messenger in Greek, so when religions adopted it for spiritual beings, they were really saying these creatures are God's messengers—a perfect example of how a simple job title became something magical.
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