• auld •
Printable Version 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, 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" but went on to become English auld and old. 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".
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