• auld •
Pronunciation: ôld or awld • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: (Scots English) Old.
Notes: In most English-speaking regions midnight of January 1 is celebrated as New Year's Eve. The celebration was previously known as Old Year's Night, which continues in English-speaking Guyana and some other areas of the Caribbean.
In Play: Many English speakers around the world sing the very popular Scottish song, Auld lang sine "Old long since" at midnight tonight, including those living in Auld Reekie "Old Smoky", a sobriquet of Edinburgh, Scotland, and elsewhere in the auld warld. No doubt we will be hearing it around the New World, as well in the wee hours tonight.
Word History: Today's Good Word was eald in Old English, a word which developed into Modern English old and Scots English auld. The original Proto-Indo-European root, *al- meant "grow, nourish", and with the suffix -to (*al-to meant "grown"). With the suffix -m, it turned up in Latin almus "nourishing", the feminine of which is the alma in alma mater "the nourishing mother" = a school from which you graduate. Alumnus and alumna are based on the same root; they mean "student, pupil" in Latin, from alere "to nourish". (Did you read about alphaDictionary's Top 10 Words of 2006 yet?)
AULD
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7444
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
AULD
• The Good Dr. Goodword
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
Not to go off on a tangent, but do any of you mathmeticians out there have the lyrics to Auld Lang Cosine?
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
OK, I guess not. I'll have to work on my own.
More to come after I crack open that 750 ml bottle of V-Twelve Belgian-style ale (12% ABV )Should auld mathematics be forgot
And never brought to mind,
A happy life I'll live should I
Ne'er solve Auld Lang Cosine!
Nor solve an arccosine, my dear,
Nor e'en a haversine!
Nor use a table to inter-
Po-o-late Auld Lang Cosine
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
Return to “Good Word Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 113 guests