ǫld

From Proto-Germanic *aldiz (“age, lifetime”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌳𐍃 (alds).

• (9th century West Norse) IPA^(key): /ˈɒld/
• (12th century Icelandic) IPA^(key): /ˈɒld/

ǫld f (genitive aldar, plural aldir)

1. time, age
   • Vǫluspá, verse 3, lines 1-2, in 1867, S. Bugge, Norrœn fornkvæði: Sæmundar Edda hins fróða. Christiania, page 1:

     Ár var alda / þar er Ýmir bygði, […]

     In early ages, / when Ymir lived […]

2. cycle, period
   • Stjorn 95, in 1834, F. Magnússon, C.C. Rafn, Fornmanna sögur. Volume VIII. Copenhagen, page 15:

     […] ok at greina daga, uikur ok manadi, aar ok aldir

     and to distinguish days from weeks and months, years and centuries

3. (poetic, in the singular) people
   • Kate Heslop (ed.) 2017, ‘Skúli Þorsteinsson, Poem about Svǫlðr 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 362.

     […] nú fiðr ǫld, at eldumk […]

     […] now people find I grow old […]

4. (poetic, in the plural) men, mankind
   • Hávamál, verse 12, lines 1-3, in 1867, S. Bugge, Norrœn fornkvæði: Sæmundar Edda hins fróða. Christiania, page 44:

     Era sva gott, / sem gott qveþa, / öl alda sona; […]

     Is not so good, / as they say it is, / ale for the sons of men; […]

• Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1874) “ǫld”, in An Icelandic-English Dictionary, 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, page 763
• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “öld”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 528; also available at the Internet Archive