Etymograph

English

old

Old comes from Middle English old ‘elderly’, from Old English ald ‘old, aged, ancient, antique, primeval’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂el-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eltós1‘grown’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aldaz1‘grown-up’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*ald1reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150ald1‘old’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500old1‘elderly’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1598–1599old1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English old
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1598–1599, Much Adoe about Nothing: “URSULA: Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂el-Wiktionary, English oldreconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂eltósWiktionary, English old‘grown’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aldazWiktionary, English old‘grown-up’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*aldWiktionary, English oldreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150aldWiktionary, English old‘old’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500oldWiktionary, English old‘elderly’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1598–1599oldWiktionary, English old. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1598–1599, Much Adoe about Nothing: “URSULA: Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's…”

The story

Inherited from Middle English old, oold, from Old English ald, eald (‘old, aged, ancient, antique, primeval’), from Proto-West Germanic *ald, from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (‘grown-up’), originally a participle form, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eltós (‘grown, tall, big’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with old, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-

  • as ← eallswā ← *allswā ← *all ← *allaz
  • all ← eall ← *allaz
  • else ← ells ← elles ← *alljas ← *aljas
  • adult ← adulte ← adultus ← adolescō ← olēscō
  • el ← ille ← olle ← *olnos
  • ultimate ← ultimātus ← ultimō ← ultimus ← *oltm̥mos
  • element ← elementum
  • alien ← aliēnus ← alius ← *aljos ← *h₂élyos
  • ultra ← ūls ← *h₂ol-
  • alternate ← alternātus ← alternō ← alternus ← alter
  • alter ← alterer
  • ellen ← elne ← *alljan ← *aljaną

113 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “old”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- / old