old as the hills
English
WOTD – 4 August 2022
Etymology
Possibly a reference to Job 15:7 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized):[1] “Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou made before the hills?”[2]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌəʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌoʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪlz
Adjective
old as the hills (not comparable)
- (idiomatic, simile, chiefly hyperbolic) Extremely old.
- Synonyms: aged, age-old, ancient, old as the Pyramids, old as time, older than dirt, older than the Pyramids; see also Thesaurus:old
- 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “In Fashion”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, pages 6–7:
- His family is as old as the hills, and infinitely more respectable.
- 1937, Aldous Huxley, “Social Reform and Violence”, in Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods Employed for Their Realization, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1957, →OCLC, page 25:
- A violent revolution cannot achieve anything except the inevitable results of violence, which are as old as the hills.
Alternative forms
Translations
extremely old
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References
- The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Job 15:7, column 1.: “Art thou the firſt man that was borne? Or waſt thou made before the hilles?”
- “(as) old as the hills, phrase” under “old, adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2022; “as old as the hills, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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