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

[Sally Donlon]

We still have "aldermen" in some of our rural communities.

sally donlon



Joshua Nimocks wrote:

> I'm sorry.  I should have specified: alder, 'the head of a family or
> clan.'
>
> -Joshua Nimocks
>
> On Wed, 3 Mar 2004, Vida J Morkunas wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Vida J Morkunas <vidamorkunas at TELUS.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: one of the oldest written words in the english language still
> >               in              usage
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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
> >