Etymology

alder-

Today it means: Of all; having the greatest degree of something, prefixed to superlative adjectives and adverbs. Full definition →

Middle English alder- ← Old English ealra
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromealra
  2. Middle English · inherited fromalder-
  3. English todayalder-

Inherited from Middle English alder-, from Old English ealra, genitive plural of eall (“all”). Compare German aller-, Dutch aller-, Old Norse allra. For the epenthetic /d/, compare with the development of unrelated alder.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.