eald

Forms

eald (comparative ieldra, superlative ieldest)^[1]

• Anglian and Kentish ald: Senex ald in the Corpus Glossary.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *ald, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“old, grown up”).^[1][5] The Proto-Germanic adjective is continued by Old Frisian ald, Old Saxon ald and Old High German alt;^[5][6] there are also Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃 (alþeis, “old”), from a related stem, and the comparative Old Norse ellri (“older”).^[5][6]

Kroonen explains it as the old participle of the verb Proto-Germanic *alaną (“to grow, to bring up”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-tó- (“grown”), the formation that gave Latin altus (“high”) and Old Irish alt (“height, cliff”).^[5] Holthausen and Orel connect it with the Old English verb alan and with Ancient Greek ἄναλτος (ánaltos, “insatiable”), following Brugmann;^[6][7][8] Köbler gives the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to grow, to nourish”).^[6][7][8]

Germanic /a/ before ⟨l⟩ and a consonant was fronted and then broken to ⟨ea⟩ in some dialects, giving ⟨eald⟩ from older ⟨ald⟩; in others the fronting failed and the vowel stayed ⟨a⟩.^[9] The comparative is ieldra, the superlative ieldest.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The English bounds of a grant of King Coenwulf of Mercia to Archbishop Wulfred, dated 811 and kept in a single sheet held to be the original, run east on stræte on þ ealde þrymyrce “east along the street to the old meeting point of three boundaries”.^[11][4] The will of the reeve Abba (833×839), also in a contemporary sheet, lists among the yearly food rent an ald hriðer “an old ox”.^[12][4] The Corpus Glossary, of the first half of the ninth century, glosses Latin “senex” with ald.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller's first sense is “old, ancient”, of people and things; the Supplement divides it into great age in living beings and in material things, the older of two people of the same name (Sidroc eorl se alda in the Chronicle for 871), a stated age (ānre nihte eald “one night old”, of a child or the moon), and what belongs to, dates from or has lasted since a time long past.^[10][13] Klaeber sorts the Beowulf uses in the same way: old living beings, time-honoured objects, and things continued from the past, such as an old feud.^[14] The second sense, “eminent, great”, belongs to rank rather than years and lives on in compounds such as ealdwita “priest, elder”.^[10][15] As a noun, se ealda “the old one” names the devil.^[10] In glosses it renders Latin “vetus”, “senex”, “antiquus” and “priscus”.^[8]

It lived on as Middle English old, now English old.^[1][16]

Timeline

• 811 – on þ ealde þrymyrce in the bounds of Coenwulf's grant at Rainham and Graveney, Kent.^[11][4]
• 833×839 – an ald hriðer “an old ox” in the will of Abba the reeve.^[12][4]
• s. ix¹ – ald glossing “senex” in the Corpus Glossary.^[3][4]
• s. ix/x – Sidroc eorl se alda and Sidroc eorl se gioncga, the elder and the younger Sidroc, in the Parker Chronicle's annal for 871.^[13][17]
• s. x/xi – ealde lāfe, an old heirloom sword, and the aged king in Beowulf.^[18][14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. old, of great age, of people and animals.^[10][13][14]
2. old, worn, of things.^[13]
3. the elder, of two people with the same name or office.^[13]
4. of a stated age: ānre nihte eald “one night old”.^[13]
5. ancient, of times long past; long-standing.^[10][14]
6. eminent, great, chief.^[10][15]
7. (kinship) grand-, in eald fæder “grandfather”.^[15][1]

Noun

1. se ealda, the old one, the devil.^[10]

Word family

• ealdian
• ieldu
• ealdnes
• efeneald
• ealdwita
• ealdgestrēon

Descendants

• Middle English old (→ English old; Scots aald; Scots auld)^[1]

Related words

• alan
• ealdor

Usage notes

Middendorff found eald very often in field names of the charters, beside words such as dīc, geat, land, pytt and strǣt.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 33
3. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 76
4. ^ a b c d e f g Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
5. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 20
6. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 83
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 13
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. eald
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.15
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 227
11. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 168
12. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1482
13. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 165
14. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. eald
15. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 68
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 83
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
19. ^ Middendorff, H. (1902), Altenglisches Flurnamenbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 46