Greek for 'messenger' — originally a human courier, promoted to the supernatural by Bible translators.
A spiritual being believed to act as an attendant or messenger of God; a person of exemplary virtue.
From Old English 'engel,' from Latin 'angelus,' from Greek 'ángelos' (ἄγγελος, messenger, envoy), possibly borrowed from an unknown Near Eastern language or from Persian 'angaros' (mounted courier). The word originally had no supernatural meaning — an 'ángelos' was simply a human messenger. It acquired its theological sense when Jewish scholars translating the Hebrew Bible into Greek (the Septuagint, 3rd century BCE) used 'ángelos' to translate Hebrew 'malʾākh' (messenger), which referred to divine emissaries
The city of Los Angeles takes its full name from the Spanish 'El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula' — 'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciúncula River.' The word 'evangelist' also contains 'angel': from Greek 'eu-' (good) + 'ángelos' (messenger), an evangelist is literally a 'good-news messenger.'