Etymology Dictionary

ADDLED,  diseased, morbid.  (E.)   Shak. has 'an addle egg;' Troilus, i. 2. 145.   Here addle is a corruption of addled, which is also in use, and occurs in Cowper, Pairing-time Anticipated.   Addled means 'affected with disease,' the word addle being properly a substantive.   The form adle, sb. a disease, occurs in the Ormulum, 4801.—A.S. ádl, disease; Grein. i. 16.   ¶ The original signification of ádl was 'inflammation,' and the word was formed by suffix -l (for -el, -al ) from A.S. ád, a funeral pile, a burning; cf. M.H.G. eiten, to heat, glow, O.H.G. eit, a funeral pile, a fire; Lat. æstus, a glowing heat, æstas, summer; Gk. αἴθειν, to burn, αἶθος, a burning; Skt. edhas, edha, wood for fuel, from indh, to kindle; Curtius, i. 310.—✔IDH, to kindle; Fick, i. 28. [※]

ERRATA

I have copied the etymology from former dictionaries without sufficient heedfulness.   The etymology from A.S. ádl is not right; this word would have passed into a mod. E. odle, with long o.   Addle corresponds to M.E. adel, as in the expression adel eye, i.e. addle egg, Owl and Nightingale, 133.   From A.S. adela, mud, Grein, i. 1 (with a reference to Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch, i. 177).   Thus the orig. sense of addle, adj., was simply 'muddy,' a sense still retained in prov. E. addle-pool.   Stratmann also cites the O. Low G. adele, mud, from the Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch by Schiller and Lübben, Bremen, 1875.   Cf. also Lowl. Scotch addle dub, a filthy pool (new ed. of Jamieson); O. Swed. adel, urine of cattle (Ihre); E. Friesic adel, dung, adelig, foul, adelpól, an addle pool (Koolman).   Quite distinct from A.S. ádl, though Koolman seems to confuse these words, as many others have done.