one of the oldest written words in the english languagestillin usage

[Lesa Dill]

 Sorry.  I'm confused.  Are you all arguing about the oldest word that hasn't undergone any change or
"evolution"?  Carved in a cave?  Written alone in a document?  Can we really assume the OED as our principal
source for information on language change and the processes involved in it?  Its benefits are obvious, but I
would think in discussions such as this one, we ought to go back to the full text(s).

 Herb Stahlke wrote:

> Not just rural areas.  The Chicago City Council is made up of alderman, and they have aldermanic elections.
>
> Herb
>
> 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
> > >