*aldrą

Runic: ᚨᛚᛞᚱᚨ Pronunciation: /ˈɑl.drɑ̃/

noun · neuter · a-stem

Meanings

  1. life; the course or duration of one's life
  2. lifetime; age

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-tró-m, an instrumental noun in *-tro-m formed from the root *h₂el-, probably originally referring to that connected with or resulting from growth and subsequently developing the Proto-Germanic meaning ‘life, lifetime; age’. A closely corresponding formation occurs in Proto-Celtic *altro-, preserved in Old Irish com-altar and mí-altar (Kroonen 2013: s.v. *aldra-; Olsen 1988: 8; van Sluis et al. 2023: 238). However, the Celtic formation retains the root's ‘nourish, raise’ semantics, whereas the PGmc semantics differ; van Sluis and colleagues therefore regard the Celtic and Germanic nouns as independent parallel formations, not evidence for a specifically Celto-Germanic word. Further Indo-European relatives of the root include Latin alere and Old Irish alt; compare also Latin altus < *h₂el-tó-s, a different derivative of the same root (Matasović 2009a: 31; van Sluis et al. 2023: 238).

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nom.aldrąaldrō
Acc.aldrąaldrō
Gen.aldras, aldrisaldrǫ̂
Dat.aldraialdramaz
Inst.aldrōaldramiz
Voc.aldrąaldrō

Find a form

Descendants

  • *aldr (Proto-West Germanic)
    • alder (Old Dutch)
      • ouder (Middle Dutch)
        • ouder (Dutch)
  • *aldr (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ealdor, aldor, ealder (Old English)
      • alder (Middle English)
  • *aldr (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ealdor, aldor, ealder (Old English)
      • ealdorman (Old English)
        • alderman, aldermon (Middle English)
          • alderman (English)
  • *aldr (Proto-West Germanic)
    • alder (Old Frisian)
      • Oaler (Saterland Frisian)
  • *aldr (Proto-West Germanic)
    • altar (Old High German)
      • alter (Middle High German)
        • Altar (Alemannic German)
        • Ålter, Oiter (Bavarian)
        • אַלטער (alter) (Yiddish)
  • *aldr (Proto-West Germanic)
    • altar (Old High German)
      • alter (Middle High German)
        • Alter, Alda, Alla (German)
          • Alter (Luxembourgish)
  • *aldr (Proto-West Germanic)
    • aldar (Old Saxon)
      • alder, older, ōlder (Middle Low German)
        • Oller, Öller (Low German)
  • aldr (Old Norse)
    • aldur (Faroese)
    • aldur (Icelandic)
    • alder, aldur, aldre, elder (Norwegian Nynorsk)
  • aldr (Old Norse)
    • alder (Danish)
      • alder (Norwegian Bokmål)
  • aldr (Old Norse)
    • alder (Old Swedish)
      • ålder (Swedish)
  • 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌻𐌳𐍂𐍃 (framaldrs) (Gothic)

Explore/search these descendants

View on Wiktionary