Today happens to
be my brother’s birthday. But not just any birthday. His fortieth birthday. And as someone who was constantly teased while I
was little, let’s just say I’m enjoying this a lot. So let’s look at things
relating to age, shall we?
Age
Age first showed
up in the late thirteenth century as a
noun, and then in the late fourteenth century as a verb—although initially it
only referred to an era of time, before also referring to how old someone was.
It comes from the Old French
aage/eage/edage, age or lifetime, from
the Vulgar
Latin aetaticum. That’s from the classical Latin aetatem, age,
from aevum, age (like, a slightly different form of age). It can be traced all the way back to
the Proto Indo European
aiw-, vital force or life.
Old
Old comes from the Old English ald/eald,
old. It comes from the Proto
Germanic althaz, adult, which is
related to the Proto Indo European root al-,
meaning grow or nourish. Also related
are the words elder and eldest, which once upon a time used to be what we used
when we wanted to say older and oldest. There’s also a tree called an elder, but that one isn’t related at all.
Senior
Senior showed up
in the late thirteenth century from
the classical Latin senior, which
just means older.
No real surprises in this one. But it is from the word senex (old man) and can be traced to the Proto Indo European sen-, old, which is the
origin word for words like sir and senor, which is pretty neat.
Ancient
Lastly today, we’ll
look at ancient. It showed up in the late fourteenth century as auncyen, which meant very old
people before also meaning very old things. It’s from the Old French ancient, old or ancient, and the Vulgar
Latin anteanus. Now, that word is
taken from the classical Latin ante,
which I’m sure you all recognize and also means before.
It’s related to the Proto Indo European ant-,
which means front or fore [https://www.etymonline.com/word/*ant-], but I can’t
quite see how we derived old from that.
Sources
Tony Jebson’s
page on the Origins of
Old English
Go to Mexico and you'll hear senior used as sir.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to your brother. He's still young.
So what you're saying is that before the 13th century no one got old.
ReplyDelete:P
Ancient's root is a bit weird.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to your brother. 40 happens to the best of us :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting. And happy birthday to your brother! 40 isn't actually that old.
ReplyDeleteI liked 40 but 50 was even more fun.
ReplyDeleteWe use elder at church. (My husband is an elder.)