Also 3 (Orm.) elldern, eldrin, 7–8 Sc. eldren, 8 elderin. [f. ELDER a. + -EN. In quot. 1839 prob. a new formation.]
† 1. Elderly. Obs. exc. Sc.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1213. Ȝiff þu … hafesst ȝet … tohh þu be ȝung, Elldernemanness late. Ibid., 1235.
1611. Hudson, Judith, 49 (Jam.). The tree bends his eldren braunch That way where first the stroke hath made him launch.
1739. A. Nicol, Poems, 73 (Jam.). The eldern men sat down their lane, To wet their throats within.
1768. Ross, Helenore, 68 (Jam.). Colin and Lindy … The ane an elderin man, the niest a lad.
1790. A. Wilson, To E. Picken. Aneath some spreading eldren thorn.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxiv. His Excellency is a thought eldern.
2. Old, belonging to earlier times. arch.
a. 1300. Cursor M. (Gött. MS.), 18016. Mine eldrin folk of iuen lede Haue i [Satan] done rise againes him.
a. 1400. [implied in ELDERNLY adv.].
1839. Darley, Introd. Beaum. & Fl. (1840), I. p. xxvi. Our eldern dramatist was a decided poet, which our modern was not.
Hence † Eldernly adv. [see -LY2.], of old time.
a. 1400. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 352. Þat þe chalouns þat eldernlyche hadde y-set, so halde here a-syse.
