#124. Oldness. -- N. oldness &c. adj[obs].; age, antiquity; cobwebs of antiquity. maturity; decline, decay; senility &c. 128.
seniority, eldership, primogeniture. archaism &c. (the past) 122; thing of the past, relic of the past; megatherium[obs]; Sanskrit.
tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law.
V. be old &c. adj.; have had its day, have seen its day; become old &c. adj.; age, fade, senesce.
Adj. old, ancient, antique; of long standing, time-honored, venerable; elder, eldest; firstborn.
prime; primitive, primeval, primigenous[obs]; paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic[obs], paleolithic, ; primordial, primordinate[obs]; aboriginal &c. (beginning) 66; diluvian[obs], antediluvian; protohistoric[obs]; prehistoric; antebellum, colonial, precolumbian; patriarchal, preadamite[obs]; paleocrystic[obs]; fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial[obs], antemundane[obs]; archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter.
immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary; inveterate, rooted.
antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete; out of date, out of fashion, out of it; stale, old-fashioned, behind the age; old-world; exploded; gone out, gone by; passe, run out; senile &c. 128; time worn; crumbling &c. (deteriorated) 659; secondhand.
old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam[obs], old as history.
[geological eras (list, starting at given number of years bp)] Archeozoic[5,000,000,000], Proterozoic[1,500,000,000], Paleozoic[600,000,000], Mesozoic[220,000,000], Cenozoic[70,000,000].
[geological periods (list)] Precambrian, Cambrian[600,000,000], Ordovician[500,000,000], Silurian[440,000,000], Devonian[400,000,000], Mississippian[350,000,000], Pennsylvanian[300,000,000], Permian[270,000,000], Triassic[220,000,000], Jurassic[180,000,000], Cretaceous[135,000,000]; Tertiary[70,000,000], Paleogene[70,000,000], Neocene[25,0000,000]; Quaternary[1,000,000].
[geological epochs (list, starting at 70,000,000 years bp)] Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent.
Adv. since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah.
Phr. vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi [Lat][Tacitus].