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): “Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou made before the hills?”

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌəʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌoʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlz

Adjective

old as the hills (not comparable)

1. (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

• older than the hills

Translations

extremely old

• Finnish: vanha kuin taivas
• French: vieux comme le monde (fr)
• Galician: vello coma o mundo
• Hungarian: vén, mint az országút (hu)
• Irish: chomh sean leis an gceo, chomh sean leis na cnoic, chomh sean leis na clocha glasa, chomh sean leis an díle
• Italian: vecchio come Matusalemme m, vecchio come il cucco m
• Polish: stary jak świat (pl) m
• Portuguese: mais velho que a Sé de Braga (literally “older than the Cathedral of Braga”), mais velho que o cagar em cócoras
• Spanish: más viejo que Matusalén, más visto que el tebeo, más viejo que mear de pie (es)
• Swedish: gammal som gatan (sv)
• Welsh: cyn hyned â phechod, cyn hyned â Methuselah, cyn hyned â'r garreg