eld
/ɛld/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.35 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Old.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "A forlyued cok leiþ eiren in his laste elde... and ȝif any venemous worme sittiþ on broode þerevppon in þe canyculer dayes, þerof is igendrid... a cocatrice."
- "The experience of many years gave old men peculiar qualification for various offices; and elders, or men of a ripe or advanced eld or age, were variously employed under the Mosaic law."
- "Promptly appeared a paragon, aged twenty-five or thereabouts, and exhibiting all the steadiness and serenity of advanced eld."
- "Dotard, (ſaide he) let be thy deepe aduiſe; Seemes that through many yeares thy wits thee faile, And that weake eld hath left thee nothing wiſe, Els neuer ſhould thy iudgement be ſo frayle, To meaſure manhood by the ſword or mayle."
- "Taught he not thee—the man of eld, / Whose eyes within his eyes beheld / Heaven's numerous hierarchy span / The mystic gulf from God to man?"
- "As some true chief of men, bowed down with stress Of life's disastrous eld, on blossoming youth May gaze, and murmur with self-pity and ruth […]"
Etymology
From Middle English elde, from Old English ieldu, eldo, ieldo (“age, period of time; period; time of life, years; mature or old age, eld; an age of the world, era, epoch”), from Proto-West Germanic *aldī, from Proto-Germanic *alþį̄ (“eld, age”), from *aldaz (“grown up, mature, old”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eltós, from *h₂el- (“to raise, feed”). Cognate with Scots eild (“age”), North Frisian jelde (“age”), German Älte (“age”), Danish ælde (“eld, age”), Icelandic elli (“eld, age”). Related also to Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌳𐍃 (alds, “generation, age”), Old English alan (“to grow up, nourish”). More at old.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂el-, elde, ieldu, *aldī, *alþį̄, *h₂eltós
Usage
Inflected Forms
elth (alternative)
eild (alternative, Scotland)
eeld (alternative, Scotland)
ild (alternative, Scotland)
yeeld (alternative, Scotland)
elder (comparative)
eldest (superlative)
elds (present, singular)
elding (participle, present)
elded (participle, past)
elded (past)