The text editor suggests that this word, only found in Bibbesworth material and the related Femina, is nothing but an alternative spelling of astele – a ‘made-up word based on the ‘standard’ astele/estele’ (Fem² p.67.n525). The primary sense of astele is ‘splinter’, hence ‘piece of wood’, and thus referring to the ‘hame’ or ‘curved piece of wood’ which supports a horse-collar’. The Middle English glosses (homes, hambors and berynghamez; see MED hame n.2, ham-berwe n. and berw-ham n.) confirm this sense, and the possibility of confusing ‘c’ with ‘t’ and ‘o’ with ‘e’ in medieval manuscripts would explain the formation and thus the etymology of this word. See also William Rothwell, ‘The semantic Field of Old French Astele: The Pitfalls of the Medieval Gloss in Lexicography’, Journal for French Language studies 12 (2002), 211-228.