Etymology: Ultimately < Anglo-Norman and Middle French, French †regal (adjective) royal (2nd half of the 13th cent. in Anglo-Norman; 880 in Old French as regiel ) and its etymon classical Latin rēgālis of or belonging to a king (or queen) or monarchy, royal, concerning a king or kings, proper to a king, characteristic of a king, kingly, acting in the manner of a king < rēg- , rēx king (see rex n.¹) + -ālis -al suffix¹. The uses as noun reflect various different derived nouns in French and Latin: (1) Anglo-Norman and Middle French regal (masculine) royal vestments, royal right or privilege (both c1225 in Old French), sovereign rule (early 14th cent. in Anglo-Norman), king's man (c1334 in Anglo-Norman), kingdom (late 14th cent.); (2) regale (masculine) kingdom (a1200 in Old French), territory given by a king (or queen) to a bishop (c1243), (feminine) royal right or privilege (1260 in Old French; 1174 as regaile ; 1180 in sense ‘right of a monarch to receive revenue of a bishopric while it is vacant’, 1246 in sense ‘investiture of a bishopric or abbey’; French †regale ); (3) post-classical Latin regalis (masculine) prince of royal blood (4th cent.); (4) regale (neuter) ornament used at coronation (from 1230 in British sources), royal power, dignity, right, prerogative (13th cent. in British sources); (5) regalia (feminine) royal power, dignity, right, prerogative (from 13th cent. in British sources), regality, district, or jurisdiction (from 14th cent. in British sources); (6) regalium (neuter) regality, district, or jurisdiction (13th cent. in British sources); compare also the spec. uses of the Latin neuter plural form at regalia n.¹ Compare Italian regale , adjective (a1321) and see further Romance cognates at real adj.¹ With use as noun compare regale n.¹, regalia n.¹, regality n.¹ With use as adjective compare real adj.¹, royal adj., rial adj.Compare Old English regallic splendid (compare sense B. 2; apparently < classical Latin rēgālis (see above) + Old English -lic -ly suffix¹):OE Glosses to Let. of Boniface IV to Æðelberht of Kent (transcript of lost MS) in Jrnl. Eng. & Germanic Philol. (1960) 59 711 Enormes largitori [omnium bonorum Deo] grates exsolvimus : regalican cystican..gife witolysað & unbindað.

Etymology: Apparently < a variant of Middle French rigolle, rigole rigol n.; compare Old French regol (c1210). Compare rigol n., riggle n., raggle n.²

Etymology: Apparently < Middle French, French régale (masculine) portable organ (1553; 1552 in jeu de regualles as the name of an organ stop; 1537 as regalle denoting an organ), although the French word may (in view of the chronology) conversely represent a borrowing from English. Further etymology uncertain and disputed; perhaps a use as noun of régal regal adj., although other suggestions have been made, as e.g. a transferred use of Middle French rigole watercourse, gutter, channel (see rigol n. and compare Old French regol : see regal n.²) with allusion to the reed pipe shallot of this sort of organ, or derivation from post-classical Latin regulare (see regulate v.). Compare Dutch regaal sort of reed stop (1772; 1530 as regal), small, portable organ (1908 in historical use), Middle Low German regāl (1518), German Regal (1503; also in the 16th cent. as Regale, Regahll, Rigal, Rygal), Italian regale (1607–9).For 17th and 18th cent. evidence for the use of rigol, rigols to denote different musical instruments, see the material collected in G. Strahle Early Music Dict. (1995) 308/2.