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elder
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
elder
I.adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an older/elder brother
▪ I have two older brothers.
elder statesman
elder statesman
▪ a respected elder statesman
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
brother
▪ His elder brother, Nails, still at school, played water-polo for the town and stole cars.
▪ There was some difficulty about funds until Laxmidas, Mohandas' elder brother and a lawyer, undertook to supply them.
▪ His elder brother Edwin was next in succession to the baronetcy, but he was a total invalid.
▪ As the first verdict for Lyle Menendez was read, the elder brother looked straight ahead and then shook his head slowly.
▪ His two elder brothers and one sister all died as children.
▪ But as the elder brother remains silent, his lawyers are preparing a new tack in their fight against murder charges.
▪ Twenty years earlier he fled from an elder brother plotting to kill him.
▪ Always he had been overshadowed by his elder brother, the famous Black Douglas - and never wished it otherwise.
child
▪ The elder child may be made to give way to the demands of the younger one in order to keep the peace.
▪ In 1944, when she was out shopping, a flying bomb killed her elder child.
daughter
▪ Nenna was struck by the difference in her elder daughter since she had seen her last.
▪ Bruch suggests that a significantly large proportion of anorexics are eldest or elder daughters.
▪ Inside the caravan her elder daughter was pushing at the door to come out.
▪ It took me a while to realise that the elder daughter had only a stump instead of a left arm.
▪ His elder daughters, seventeen-year-old Nancy and fourteen-year-old Ella, were round all over.
▪ Kate and John's two elder daughters, Jemima and Jenny, particularly enjoy this part of Christmas.
▪ Terry wrote out messages for his girlfriend Madeleine and their daughter Sulome, his elder daughter Gabrielle and for his sister Peggy.
sister
▪ She was, as she always had been, a kind of benign, elder sister.
▪ Her elder sister married the Reverend Norris, who received the living at Mansfield.
▪ In fact, although Constanze was not such an accomplished singer as her two elder sisters, she was by no means musically illiterate.
▪ In contrast, Jane Alexander as the elder sister and Robert Klein as her bulky beau are hitched to plows.
▪ Mum ran when she was young and my two elder sisters, Lorraine and Lisa, could have been good.
▪ Two of the survivors had several elder sisters working as compositors.
▪ Her elder sister had married and moved to her in-laws.
son
▪ Then his example lured his elder son Bertrand to Tripoli in 1112, and his younger son Alphonse Jourdain there in 1147.
▪ Their elder son, Nicky, had disappeared on his motorcycle in a cloud of dust and anger.
▪ One was to her elder son Gamal, who was then in Florida.
▪ The elder son of the Rev.
▪ Two of the pioneers of X-ray diffraction were William Bragg and his elder son, Lawrence.
▪ They always remind me of those twins from that cartoonist my elder son liked.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ John's elder brother died in a boating accident.
▪ Wright's elder sister is also an actor.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And the elder Miss Snoot at her window high up in Old Odborough looks over the roofs of the town.
▪ Bruch suggests that a significantly large proportion of anorexics are eldest or elder daughters.
▪ But his elder brother John thinks that he knew better what the score was than he ever let on.
▪ His elder brother, Nails, still at school, played water-polo for the town and stole cars.
▪ In contrast, Jane Alexander as the elder sister and Robert Klein as her bulky beau are hitched to plows.
▪ Polyneices, the elder son, did the same.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
church
▪ A church elder, he was convener of the fabric committee of Grandtully/Strathtay and Logiealmond Churches.
▪ Honest with the church elders who hired him, he told them that his family is his first ministry.
▪ Read in studio A church playgroup is facing closure because, it's claimed, church elders don't like children.
village
▪ The village elders wouldn't like it, said Monique, though the football team might.
▪ The village elders were encouraged to establish a system of local government, and elected their leaders.
▪ The teachers, the women's committee, village elders and the mayor were overjoyed.
▪ The parents of the girls and the village elders are saying, Please come and help us.
▪ A few months later one of the village elders appeared in our office.
▪ Primitive myth comes to us through the kindness of shamans, village elders, witches, warlocks, and medicine men.
▪ Envious village elders would instigate whispering campaigns against them, or accuse them directly of witchcraft.
■ VERB
respect
▪ He couldn't be all that ruthless and cold-hearted if he respected his elders, she mused, her spirits lifting.
▪ Kids are learning to respect their pop elders, too.
▪ In the Confucian spirit, he was the respected elder.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ the tribal elders
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At a very early age children learn to self-justify, because they learn it from their elders who are continuously doing it.
▪ Classical music elders may turn up their noses, but so far, the antics are working.
▪ However, as stories so often show, what elders say youth disregards.
▪ I myself have watched many elders labour over their paintings and pour spiritual potency into these creations.
▪ It is natural enough for them to want to acquire knowledge from their elders.
▪ Such elders may have given positive meaning to experiences of anxiety, poverty, chronic illness, multiple losses and death.
▪ The ancestors rarely act on their own initiative: generally these avenging angels of justice are invoked by the local elder.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Elder

Elder \El"der\, n. [OE. ellern, eller, AS. ellen, cf. LG. elloorn; perh. akin to OHG. holantar, holuntar, G. holunder; or perh. to E. alder, n.] (Bot.) A genus of shrubs ( Sambucus) having broad umbels of white flowers, and small black or red berries.

Note: The common North American species is Sambucus Canadensis; the common European species ( S. nigra) forms a small tree. The red-berried elder is S. pubens. The berries are diaphoretic and aperient. The European elder ( Sambucus nigra) is also called the elderberry, bourtree, Old World elder, black elder, and common elder.

Box elder. See under 1st Box.

Dwarf elder. See Danewort.

Elder tree. (Bot.) Same as Elder.
--Shak.

Marsh elder, the cranberry tree Viburnum Opulus).

Elder

Elder \Eld"er\, n. [AS. ealdor an elder, prince, fr. eald old. See Old, and cf. Elder, a., Alderman.]

  1. One who is older; a superior in age; a senior.
    --1 Tim. v. 1.

  2. An aged person; one who lived at an earlier period; a predecessor.

    Carry your head as your elders have done.
    --L'Estrange.

  3. A person who, on account of his age, occupies the office of ruler or judge; hence, a person occupying any office appropriate to such as have the experience and dignity which age confers; as, the elders of Israel; the elders of the synagogue; the elders in the apostolic church.

    Note: In the modern Presbyterian churches, elders are lay officers who, with the minister, compose the church session, with authority to inspect and regulate matters of religion and discipline. In some churches, pastors or clergymen are called elders, or presbyters.

  4. (M. E. Ch.) A clergyman authorized to administer all the sacraments; as, a traveling elder.

    Presiding elder (Meth. Ch.), an elder commissioned by a bishop to have the oversight of the churches and preachers in a certain district.

    Ruling elder, a lay presbyter or member of a Presbyterian church session.
    --Schaff.

Elder

Elder \Eld"er\, a. [AS. yldra, compar. of eald old. See Old.]

  1. Older; more aged, or existing longer.

    Let the elder men among us emulate their own earlier deeds.
    --Jowett (Thucyd. )

  2. Born before another; prior in years; senior; earlier; older; as, his elder brother died in infancy; -- opposed to younger, and now commonly applied to a son, daughter, child, brother, etc.

    The elder shall serve the younger.
    --Gen. xxv. 2

  3. But ask of elder days, earth's vernal hour.
    --Keble.

    Elder hand (Card Playing), the hand playing, or having the right to play, first.
    --Hoyle.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
elder

"more old," Old English (Mercian) eldra, comparative of eald, ald (see old); only English survival of umlaut in comparison. Superseded by older since 16c. Elder statesman (1921) originally was a translation of Japanese genro (plural).

elder

type of berry tree, c.1400, with excrescent -d- from earlier ellen, from Old English ellæn, ellærn "elderberry tree," origin unknown, perhaps related to alder, which at any rate might be the source of the -d-. Common Germanic, cognates: Old Saxon elora, Middle Low German elre, Old High German elira, German Eller, Erle. Related: Elderberry.

elder

"elderly person, senior citizen," c.1200, from Old English eldra "older person, parent; ancestor; chief, prince" (used in biblical translation for Greek presbyter); see elder (adj.). Compare German Eltern, Danish forældre, Swedish föräldrar "parents." The Old English for "grandfather" was ealdfæder.

Wiktionary
elder

Etymology 1

  1. comparative of old: older, greater than another in age or seniority. n. 1 An older person or an older member, usually a leader, of some community. 2 One who is older than another. 3 One who lived at an earlier period; a predecessor. 4 An officer of a church, sometimes having teaching responsibilities. 5 A clergyman authorized to administer all the sacraments. 6 (context US Mormonism English) One ordained to the lowest office in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchizedek%20priesthood%20(Latter%20Day%20Saints). 7 (context US Mormonism English) Male missionary. 8 (context Mormonism often capitalized English) title for a male missionary; title for a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/general%20authority. 9 (context paganism and Heathenry English) A pagan or Heathen priest or priestess. v

  2. (context Quakerism English) To admonish or reprove for improper conduct by the elders of the meeting. Etymology 2

    n. 1 A small tree, ''Sambucus nigra'', having white flowers in a cluster, and edible purple berries 2 Any of the other species of the genus ''Sambucus'': small trees, shrubs or herbaceous perennials with red, purple, or white/yellow berries (some of which are poisonous).

WordNet
elder
  1. n. a person who is older than you are [syn: senior]

  2. any of numerous shrubs or small trees of temperate and subtropical northern hemisphere having white flowers and berrylike fruit [syn: elderberry bush]

  3. any of various church officers

elder
  1. adj. used of the older of two persons of the same name especially used to distinguish a father from his son; "Bill Adams, Sr." [syn: older, sr.]

  2. older brother or sister; "big sister" [syn: big(a), older] [ant: little(a)]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Elder

An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. The term may refer to:

Elder (administrative title)

The term Elder or its equivalent in another language, frequently utilized in French: Levieux, Italian: il Vecchio, and German: Ältester, it is used in several different countries and organizations to indicate a position of authority. This usage is usually derived from the notion that the oldest members of any given group are the wisest, and are thus the most qualified to rule, provide counsel or serve the said group in some other capacity.

Elder (Latter Day Saints)

Elder is a priesthood office in the Melchizedek priesthood of denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Elder (Methodist)

An Elder, in many Methodist Churches, is ordained minister that has the responsibilities to preach and teach, preside at the celebration of the sacraments, administer the Church through pastoral guidance, and lead the congregations under their care in service ministry to the world.

The office of Elder, then, is what most people tend to think of as the pastoral, priestly, clergy office within the church. In most of the denominations within Methodism that use the title, ordination to the office of Elder is open to both men and women. Methodist denominations that "a threefold ministry of deacons, elders, and bishops" include the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Free Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church, among other denominations represented in the World Methodist Council.

Elder (Christianity)

An elder in Christianity is a person who is valued for wisdom and holds a position of responsibility in a Christian group. In some Christian traditions (e.g., Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Methodism) an elder is an ordained person who usually serves a local church or churches and who has been ordained to a ministry of word, sacrament and order, filling the preaching and pastoral offices. In other Christian traditions (e.g., Presbyterianism, Baptists), an elder may be a lay person charged with serving as an administrator in a local church, or be ordained to such an office, also serving in the preaching (in this case referring to teaching done during church gatherings) and/or pastoral roles. Though there is technically a distinction between the idea of ordained elders and lay elders, often the two concepts are conflated in everyday conversation (for example, a lay elder in the Baptist tradition may still be referred to as being "clergy", especially in America). Particularly in reference to age and experience, elders exist throughout world cultures, and the Christian sense of elder is partially related to this.

Elder (constructor)

Elder was an American racing car constructor. Elder cars competed in one FIA World Championship race - the 1959 Indianapolis 500.

Elder (surname)

Elder is a Scottish surname with variant spellings. Its oldest public record was found in 1066 AD in Edinburgh. People with the name Elder or its variants include:

Élder (footballer)

''' Élder Alencar Machado de Campos ''' (born 19 July 1976), commonly known as Élder, is a former Brazilian footballer.

Elder (American football coach)

Coach Elder (first name unknown) was the head football coach for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers football team in 1907. He compiled a record of 4–3.

Elder (band)

Elder is a three piece heavy metal band from Boston. The band consists of members: Nick DiSalvo (guitar, keyboard and vocals), Matt Couto (drums), Jack Donovan (bass guitar), and previously Chas Mitchell (bass guitar). Elder have released three full-length albums since 2006 and have also released other demos, EPs and a split album with Queen Elephantine. Nick DiSalvo claims that Colour Haze and Dungen are "the bands that have really influenced the methodology or the philosophy behind the new direction". While Elder's sound is varied, but heavily based around rock and metal, Elder's sound could also be said to have been influenced from such landmark Rock/Metal bands including Black Sabbath, Sleep and Electric Wizard.

Elder (given name)

Elder or Élder is a masculine given name which may refer to:

  • Élder (footballer) (born 1976), Brazilian former footballer Élder Alencar Machado de Campos
  • Elder Watson Diggs (1883-1947), principal founder and first Polemarch (chairman) of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity
  • Elder José Figueroa (born 1980), Colombian-born Salvadorian footballer
  • Élder Granja (born 1982), Brazilian footballer
  • Elder Herrera (born 1968), Colombian retired road cyclist
  • Elder Olson (1909–1992), American poet, teacher and literary critic
  • Elder Vogel, Jr., American politician
  • Elder White (1933-2010), Major League Baseball player in part of the 1962 season

Usage examples of "elder".

A certain positive terror grew on me as we advanced to this actual site of the elder world behind the legends--a terror, of course, abetted by the fact that my disturbing dreams and pseudo-memories still beset me with unabated force.

The chest claimed to be that of Elder Brewster, owned by the Connecticut Historical Society, was not improb ably his, but that it had any MAY-FLOWER relation is not shown.

In many primitive societies, sexual initiation was a natural thing that took place early in adolescence under the supervision of the tribal elders.

The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human nature.

Solitude had killed every power in her save vanity, and the form her vanity took was peculiarly irritating to her husband, and in a lesser degree to her daughter, for neither the Elder nor Loo would have founded self-esteem on adventitious advantages of upbringing.

Code, he should throw himself on his face and despoil her no further while she got on with the business of screaming for her agemates, or her elders, or her delm to come quickly and dispose of him.

It had been mixed with yarrow, agrimony, willow, and elder for cleansing and magical protection.

Elders and the others climbed the ladder and moved around the openwork spirit that guarded the door, the Amar broke apart into family groupings and contested peacefully for seats around the Gawer.

Harun al Raschid returned to his very distant land where the populace did indeed enjoy a never-ending series of fart jokes, and Sinbad and Fatima were returned to human form after a most enjoyable apehood, and then were accompanied back to Baghdad by Achmed and his new bride, Marjanah, and all were showered with gifts from that elder Sinbad, who was rich again, at least for the time being, and was much relieved to see them.

Beale could introduce the little girl only, alas, by revealing to her so attractive, so enthralling a name: the side-shows, each time, were sixpence apiece, and the fond allegiance enjoyed by the elder of our pair had been established from the earliest time in spite of a paucity of sixpences.

I am an elder of the Church of the Apocryphal You are inquiring about someone we now know as Sister Aquila.

Jenny, the elder, is married to Alan Argyll, a very successful businessman.

Although his moccasined feet made no sound on the uncarpeted floor, his movements seemed to annoy the elder of two officers who, in handsome uniforms, occupied a window-seat at one side of the room, and were evidently waiting for somebody or something as patiently as their natures would permit.

Thin arms and avaricious talons bit into cactus flesh without response, as the three slake-moths selected their victims, each grabbing hold of one of the entranced elders.

Ali Baba was the younger of two sons, and when his father had passed from this world, the elder bequeathed all of his earthly goods upon the older of the two, whose name was Kassim.