Definition of "Ethel"

Ethel

/ˈɛθɪl/

proper noun
1. A female given name from Old English, popular at the turn of the 20th century.
  Quotations
  If it is so false, and base, and hollow, this great world […] why does Ethel Newcome cling to it? Will you be fairer, dear, with any other name than your own?
  1855, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, Bradbury and Evans, page 95
  Charmian Lyle had given herself her first name at the age of sixteen, upon encountering it in an English novel. Her baptismal name was Ethel. When her husband Walter was extremely angry with her, he called her Ethel.Charmian, she thought, suited her much better. She didn't think she looked, felt, or sounded like Ethel. Nor like her middle name, which she really detested, Edna.
  1979, Mary McMullen, But Nellie Was So Nice, Doubleday, page 23
2. A number of places in the United States:
  1. An unincorporated community in Arkansas County, Arkansas.
  2. An unincorporated community in Greenfield Township, Orange County, Indiana.
  3. An unincorporated community in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.
  4. A town in Attala County, Mississippi.
  5. A town in Macon County, Missouri.
  6. An unincorporated community in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma.
  7. An unincorporated community in Richmond County, Virginia.
  8. An unincorporated community in Lewis County, Washington.
  9. An unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia.
3. A hamlet in Huron County, Ontario, Canada.