arch. and north. Forms: 1 ǣld(u, eldo, eld, (WS. ieldu, ild(u, yld(u), 2–6 elde, 2–3 ulde (ü), 3 ælde, ealde, (4 north. heild, held, ellde), 4–5 eelde, (helde), 5 Sc. eylde, 3 (6–9 Sc.) eild, (elth), 4– eld. See also ALD, OLD, sbs. [OE. ęldo (abstr. sb. f. ald, in WS. eald, OLD a.), corresp. to OS. eldî, OHG. altî, eltî, ON. elli (Da. ælde).
Synonymous derivatives from the same root are ON. ǫld (:—aldâ) and Goth. alþs (:—*alþi-z).
1. The age, period of life, at which a person has arrived. Obs. exc. dial.
a. 1000. Guthlac (Gr.), 80. Se halʓa wer In þa ærestan ældu ʓelufade Frecnessa fela.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., in Sweet (1879), 90. Eadiʓ is heora [the innocents’] yld.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 162. He leng ne leofað þonn on miðre ilde.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 318. Ich was of swuche elde.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22814. Old and ying, At þat fortald vprising sal be of eild, als þai suld here, Haue deide of eild of thritti ȝere.
c. 1300. Beket, 159. This child was bot in elde of tuo and twenti ȝer.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 742. Bot swa grete elde may nane now bere.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 403. William & ȝhe were of on held.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 643. Gamelyn, that yong was of elde.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. ix. 41. In sic strenthis and eyld.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Edward IV., vii. 2. Ye wote well all I was of no great elde.
1600. Tourneur, Transf. Metamorph. (1878), 200. Erinnis purveyor, young elth I meane.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds., s.v. Eald, He is tall of his Eald.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 63. His eild and my eild can never agree.
1860. E. B. Ramsay, Remin., Ser. I. (ed. 7). 177. ‘I am just ae eild wi’ the auld king’ [George III.].
† 2. Conventional or legal age; full age; majority. Of eld = of age; within eld = under age; also (quot. 1400) of military age. Obs.
a. 1300. Havelok, 128. Sho were comen intil helde.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 29444 (Cott. Galba). Childer within elde, of cursed man may haue þaire belde.
1357. Lay-Folks Mass-Bk., App. II. 118. Ilke man and woman that of eld is.
c. 1400. Rowland & O., 682. And alle that are with-in elde loke that thay to batayle helde.
a. 1450. Myrc, 236. Alle that ben of warde and elde.
1529. Lyndesay, Complaynt, 115. I prayit, daylie … My ȝoung maister that I mycht see Off eild.
3. Old age, advanced period of life; usually with regard to its effects upon man. Also personified. arch. & poet.
971. Blickl. Hom., 59. Se wlite eft ʓewiteþ & to ylde ʓecyrreþ.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 373, in Cott. Hom., 181. Þer is ȝeoȝeðe bute ulde.
c. 1205. Lay., 11546. Vnhæle & ælde hæueð þene king vnbalded.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1197. Sarra … wurd wið child, on elde wac.
a. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 801. Alle thir … That clerkes propertes of eld calles.
1388. Wyclif, Prov. xvi. 31. A coroun of dignyte is eelde.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., III. v. 303. A staffe forto go by in his eelde for sijkenes.
1549. Compl. Scot., i. 20. Tha begyn to decresse ande declinis til eild ande to the dede.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. iv. (1764), 187. Cold, writhled Eld, his liues-wet almost spent.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XVII. xi. 297. His eies (not yet made dim with eild) Sparkled his former worth and vigor braue.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., II. viii. (1640), 149. Who scornes at eld, peeles of his owne young haires.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., II. xxxi. The whitening snows Of venerable eld.
1800–24. Campbell, Pilgr. Glencoe, 478. Hale and unburden’d by the woes of eild.
1858. Kingsley, Weird Lady, 17. His beard was white with eld.
† b. People of advanced age; old men; senate or aristocracy. (In quot. 1592 perhaps the adj. used absol.) Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom. (Thorpe), II. 506 (Bosw.). Seo yld hi ʓebæd and seo iuʓuþ wrat.
a. 1075. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1004. Ðær wærð East Engla folces sco yld ofslaʓen.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, 147. That pleasant sweet content That diuers eld haue found within a wall.
c. poet. An old man. (But perh. an absol. use of the adj.) Rarely in pl. elds.
1796. Coleridge, Dest. Nations. To the tottering eld Still as a daughter would she run.
1830. W. Phillips, Mt. Sinai, II. 364. That eld august Came out from Israel. Ibid., III. 165. To the expectant host In solemn order did these elds descend.
† 4. Antiquity, duration of existence; time considered as a destroying or wearing agency. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 12. That eeld which that all can frete and bite.
1602. R. T., Five Godlie Serm., 64. Eld eateth al things.
a. 1667. Jer. Taylor, Serm., Suppl. (1678), 148. An old sore … by its eld almost habituate.
1742. Shenstone, School-mistress, xi. 137. In Elbow-chair, like that of Scotish Stem By the sharp Tooth of cank’ring Eld defac’d.
5. Antiquity, the olden time. Men, times, etc., of eld = men, etc., of old. poet. and arch.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11881. Hit is said oftsythes with sere men of elde, The last Ioy of ioly men Ioynys with sorow.
1640. J. Gower, Ovid’s Fest. I. 11. In times of eld men pleased the powers of heaven.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. xciii. Lands that contain the monuments of Eld.
1834. Ld. Houghton, The Eld. Blessed be the Eld, Its echoes and its shades.
1847. Longf., Ev., Prel. 3. The murmuring pines and the herlocks … Stand like Druids of eld.
b. People of the olden time, antiquity (personified). poet. and arch.
Chiefly in Shakespeare’s phrase ‘superstitious eld.’
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. iv. 36. The superstitious … Eld Receiu’d … This tale of Herne the Hunter, for a truth.
1831. Scott, Autobiog., 118 Superstitious eld … has tenanted the deserted groves with aerial beings. Ibid. (1823), Peveril, II. i. 5. Tradition and superstitious eld … had filled up the long blank of accurate information.
† 6. An age of the world, a secular period. Obs.
a. 1000. Guthlac (Gr.), 807. In þam leohtan ham Þurh ælda tid ende ʓebidan.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., in Sweet (1879), 60. Seo þridde yld wæs ða wuniende oð David.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 705. Ðis oðer werldes elde is so A ðhusent ȝer seuenti and two.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9230. Blissed be sco þat us has spedd Þat we þe elds four has redd. Ibid., 21847. Sex eildes ha we broght in place.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., II. ix. 77. Wytht-in þe ferd Eylde Yrland Was to þe Scottis obeyssande.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xii. 99. Ceculus … all eildis … schawis ws Engenerit was by the God Vulcanus.
7. Comb., as eld-time.
1839. Bailey, Festus, x. (1848), 110. In the eld-time.
