adj.
- Greater than another in age or seniority.
- Superior to another or others, as in rank.
- An older person.
- An older, influential member of a family, tribe, or community.
- One of the governing officers of a church, often having pastoral or teaching functions.
- Mormon Church. A member of the higher order of priesthood.
[Middle English eldre, from Old English eldra.]
eldership el'der·ship' n.USAGE NOTE The adjective elder is not a synonym for elderly. In comparisons between two persons, elder means "older" but not necessarily "old": My elder sister is sixteen; my younger, twelve. (Eldest is used when three or more persons are compared: He is the eldest of four brothers.) In other contexts elder does denote relatively advanced age but with the added component of respect for a person's achievement, as in an elder statesman. If age alone is to be expressed, one should use older or elderly rather than elder: A survey of older Americans; an elderly waiter. • Unlike elder and its related forms, the adjectives old, older, and oldest are applied to things as well as to persons.
el·der2 (ĕl'dər)
n.
Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Sambucus, having clusters of small white flowers and red or purplish-black berrylike fruit.
[Middle English eldre, from Old English ellærn.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
