Auld

[Dr. Goodword]

• auld •

Pronunciation: awld • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: (Scots English) Old.

Notes: In most English-speaking regions December 31 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 Syne "Old Long Since" at midnight Old or New Year's Eve. This includes those living in Auld Reekie "Old Smoky", a sobriquet of Edinburgh, Scotland, and elsewhere in the Auld Warld. No doubt it was heard around the New World as well in the wee hours this morning.

Word History: The Proto-Indo-European root al- meant "grow, nourish" and with the suffix -to (al-to), it meant "grown", which went on to become Old English eald "old". Over time the Old English word came to be auld in Scots English and old in Modern English. 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".

[tkowal]

Alma in "alma mater" should not be confused with Spanish and Portuguese "alma" (French "âme"), meaning "soul", derived from Latin "anima".

[Philip Hudson]

The Scots language developed alongside English, is similar, and has the same origins. Scots is not the same as Scottish. Scottish is sometimes called Erse. My hero, Samuel Johnson, the man who invented the dictionary, had a pretended aversion to all things Scottish. His dear friend, Boswell, who wrote Johnson's biography, was Scottish. Johnson maintained, despite evidence to the contrary, that Erse was never in a written form until 'modern times". Johnson delighted in attesting to things with evidence to the contrary. That was part of his genius.