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

[Joshua Nimocks]

Re: Michael Adams.

Alright, the email server at Duke is really messed up, so I'm responding
to what I see for the discussion list at the website.  Anyways...

I guess the key qualifier to my assertion here is "still in usage"

I checked "and", "the", and "that."

"and" first appears c700 in the Epinal Glossary.
"the" first appears c700 in the Epinal Glossary, in plural form
"that" first appears c825 in the Vespasian Psalter.

Weren't Aethelbert's Laws composed in Kent?  Maybe in that case, the
Kentish dialectal counterparts for the conjunction, definite article,
demonstrative adjective, etc. were quite different from the West Saxon
ones.  I really know nothing about Old English, so this is a mere guess.
But if I'm right then the prepositions, articles, etc. in Aethelbert's
Laws might have fallen out of usage long, long ago, making them irrelevant
to the OED, to be replaced by the West Saxon ones.

Feel free to say otherwise and put me in my place...

-Joshua Nimocks