one of the oldest written words in the english language still in usage

[Vida J Morkunas]

Hi Joshua,

Alder = a tree of the genus Alnus; related to the birch

Vida.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of
Joshua Nimocks
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 1:56 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: one of the oldest written words in the english language still in
usage

Last May Allan, Metcalf sent out an email regarding WGN-TV news of
Chicago's claim that town is the oldest word in the English language.

Well, 'town' (601) does appear to tie 'priest' and 'yield' for the OED
headwords, with the oldest citations, that are still in common usage.

These three are beaten by chiule (550) and alder (600), which appear to
have fallen out of usage in the 19th and 14th centuries, respectively.

In case anyone wanted to know,
Joshua Nimocks