1 BEISL
n. a bridle, freq. in old vellum MSS. spelt beils, Fs. 128, 62, Fms. x. 86, xi. 256 C; with z, beizl or mod. beizli, Sks. 84, 87 new Ed., N. G. L. ii. 115, Grett. 122, Fms. viii. 52, v. 1., Fas. ii. 508; beisl (wilh s), Karl. 4, Grág. i. 439 (Kb. and Sb.), Stj. 206, Nj. 33, Fms. x. 86, Flov. 26, etc. The word is not to be derived from bíta; this may with certainty be inferred from comparison with the other Teut. idioms, and even in the Roman tongues we find r after the first letter: A. S. bridle and bridels; O. H. G. brittill; Dutch bridel; Engl. bridle; these forms seem to point to the Lat. frenum; the Scandin. idioms seem to have elided the r; Swed. betsel; Dan. bidsel; Icel. beils and beisl or beizl; many words referring to horse taming and racing are not genuine Scandinavian, but of foreign extraction; so is söðull, saddle, derived from A. S. saðol, Lat. sedile.
2 BEISL
COMPDS: beislál, beislhringr, beisltamr, beisltaumar.