What is "old english"

Old \Old\, a. [Compar. Older; superl. Oldest.] [OE. old, ald, AS. ald, eald; akin to D. oud, OS. ald, OFries. ald, old, G. alt, Goth. alpeis, and also to Goth. alan to grow up, Icel. ala to bear, produce, bring up, L. alere to nourish. Cf. Adult, Alderman, Aliment, Auld, Elder.]

1. Not young; advanced far in years or life; having lived till toward the end of the ordinary term of living; as, an old man; an old age; an old horse; an old tree.

   Let not old age disgrace my high desire.
   --Sir P. Sidney.

   The melancholy news that we grow old.
   --Young.

2. Not new or fresh; not recently made or produced; having existed for a long time; as, old wine; an old friendship. ``An old acquaintance.''
   --Camden.

3. Formerly existing; ancient; not modern; preceding; original; as, an old law; an old custom; an old promise. ``The old schools of Greece.''
   --Milton. ``The character of the old Ligurians.''
   --Addison.

4. Continued in life; advanced in the course of existence; having (a certain) length of existence; -- designating the age of a person or thing; as, an infant a few hours old; a cathedral centuries old.

   And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?
   --Cen. xlvii. 8.

   Note: In this use old regularly follows the noun that designates the age; as, she was eight years old.

5. Long practiced; hence, skilled; experienced; cunning; as, an old offender; old in vice.

   Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old.
   --Milton.

6. Long cultivated; as, an old farm; old land, as opposed to new land, that is, to land lately cleared.

7. Worn out; weakened or exhausted by use; past usefulness; as, old shoes; old clothes.

8. More than enough; abundant. [Obs.]

   If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key.
   --Shak.

9. Aged; antiquated; hence, wanting in the mental vigor or other qualities belonging to youth; -- used disparagingly as a term of reproach.

10. Old-fashioned; wonted; customary; as of old; as, the good old times; hence, colloquially, gay; jolly.

11. Used colloquially as a term of cordiality and familiarity. ``Go thy ways, old lad.'' --Shak. Old age, advanced years; the latter period of life. Old bachelor. See Bachelor,

    1. Old Catholics. See under Catholic.

       Old English. See under English. n.,

    2. Old Nick, Old Scratch, the devil. Old lady (Zo["o]l.), a large European noctuid moth ( Mormo maura). Old maid.

       1. A woman, somewhat advanced in years, who has never been married; a spinster.

       2. (Bot.) A West Indian name for the pink-flowered periwinkle ( Vinca rosea).

       3. A simple game of cards, played by matching them. The person with whom the odd card is left is the old maid. Old man's beard. (Bot.)

          1. The traveler's joy ( Clematis Vitalba). So named from the abundant long feathery awns of its fruit.

          2. The Tillandsia usneoides. See Tillandsia. Old man's head (Bot.), a columnar cactus ( Pilocereus senilis), native of Mexico, covered towards the top with long white hairs. Old red sandstone (Geol.), a series of red sandstone rocks situated below the rocks of the Carboniferous age and comprising various strata of siliceous sandstones and conglomerates. See Sandstone, and the Chart of Geology. Old school, a school or party belonging to a former time, or preserving the character, manner, or opinions of a former time; as, a gentleman of the old school; -- used also adjectively; as, Old-School Presbyterians. Old sledge, an old and well-known game of cards, called also all fours, and high, low, Jack, and the game. Old squaw (Zo["o]l.), a duck ( Clangula hyemalis) inhabiting the northern parts of both hemispheres. The adult male is varied with black and white and is remarkable for the length of its tail. Called also longtailed duck, south southerly, callow, hareld, and old wife. Old style. (Chron.) See the Note under Style. Old Testament. See Old Testament under Testament, and see tanak. Old wife. [In the senses b and c written also oldwife.]

             1. A prating old woman; a gossip.

                Refuse profane and old wives' fables.
                --1 Tim. iv. 7.

             2. (Zo["o]l.) The local name of various fishes, as the European black sea bream ( Cantharus lineatus), the American alewife, etc.

          3. (Zo["o]l.) A duck; the old squaw.

             Old World, the Eastern Hemisphere.

             Syn: Aged; ancient; pristine; primitive; antique; antiquated; old-fashioned; obsolete. See Ancient.

Anglo-Saxon \An"glo-Sax"on\, n. [L. Angli-Saxones English Saxons.]

1. A Saxon of Britain, that is, an English Saxon, or one the Saxons who settled in England, as distinguished from a continental (or ``Old'') Saxon.

2. pl. The Teutonic people (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) of England, or the English people, collectively, before the Norman Conquest.

   It is quite correct to call [AE]thelstan ``King of the Anglo-Saxons,'' but to call this or that subject of [AE]thelstan ``an Anglo-Saxon'' is simply nonsense.
   --E. A. Freeman.

3. The language of the English people before the Norman conquest in 1066 (sometimes called Old English). See Saxon.

   Syn: Old English

4. One of the race or people who claim descent from the Saxons, Angles, or other Teutonic tribes who settled in England; a person of English descent in its broadest sense.

5. a person of Anglo-Saxon (esp British) descent whose native tongue is English and whose culture is strongly influenced by English culture as in "WASP for `White Anglo-Saxon Protestant'"; "this Anglo-Saxon view of things".

Old English is a 1930 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and produced by Warner Bros. The film is based on the 1924 Broadway play of the same name by John Galsworthy. The film stars George Arliss, Leon Janney, Betty Lawford and Doris Lloyd.

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid 7th century. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, English was replaced for a time as the language of the upper classes by Anglo-Norman, a relative of French, and Old English developed into the next historical form of English, known as Middle English.

Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain: Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, and Latin, brought to Britain by Roman invasion. Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the literary standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle and Modern English would develop mainly from Mercian. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule and settlement beginning in the 9th century.

Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is very different from Modern English and difficult for Modern English speakers to understand without study. Old English grammar is quite similar to that of modern German: nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms, and word order is much freer. The oldest Old English inscriptions were written using a runic system, but from about the 9th century this was replaced by a version of the Latin alphabet.

Old English is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons until the 12th century.

Old English or Olde English may also refer to:

• Old English (Ireland), 12th-century settlers from England
• Olde English (sketch comedy), a comedy troupe
• Olde English 800, a malt liquor beverage
• Anglo-Saxons, 5th-century invaders of Britain
• Early Modern English, the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, sometimes referred to colloquially as old English
• Old English, a style of handwriting or font, also known as Blackletter
• An apple beverage from Gaymer Cider Company
• A furniture polish and wood care product manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser
• Old English (film), a 1930 American Pre-Code drama film

The Old English (, meaning "old foreigners") were the descendants of the settlers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy, and England after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71. The term is generally used by scholars for residents of The Pale and Irish towns after the mid-16th century, who became increasingly opposed to the Protestant " New English" who arrived in Ireland after the Tudor conquest of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of the Old English were dispossessed in the political and religious conflicts of the 16th and 17th centuries, largely due to their continued adherence to the Roman Catholic religion. As a result, the distinction between "Old English" and "Native Irish" largely disappeared by 1700, as they were both equally barred from positions of wealth and power by the so-called New English settlers, who became known as the Protestant Ascendancy.

The earliest known reference to the term "Old English" is in the 1580s The community of Norman descent prior to then used numerous epithets to describe themselves (such as "Englishmen born in Ireland" or "English-Irish"), but it was only as a result of the political cess crisis of the 1580s that a group identifying itself as the Old English community actually emerged.