earl
/ɝl/ noun C1- A British or Irish nobleman next in rank above a viscount and below a marquess; equivalent to a European count. A female using the style is termed a countess.
- Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called counts and viscounts.
Plural earls
From the library
Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria—’”
‘Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable—’”
It was pretty interesting to imagine things about them--to imagine that perhaps the girl who sat next to you was really the daughter of a belted earl, who had been stolen away from her parents in her infancy by a cruel nurse who died before she could confess.
“In my opinion, the younger son of an earl can know very little of either.
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