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 (General Australian): (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

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

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: Oxford University Press, June 2022; “as old as the hills, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1] 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?”

[2] “(as) old as the hills, phrase” under “old, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2022; “as old as the hills, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

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