ancient

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɪn.(t)ʃənt/

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From Middle English auncyen, borrowed from Old French ancien (“old”), from Vulgar Latin root *anteanus, from Latin ante (“before”). Compare antique.

• anchient, antient, aunchient, auncient, auntient, awncient, awntient (obsolete)

ancient (comparative ancienter or more ancient, superlative ancientest or most ancient)

1. Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.

   an ancient city  an ancient forest

   • 1749, Joakim Philander [pseudonym; Friedrich Christian Schoenau], “The Adventure of the Inn”, in Vitulus Aureus: The Golden Calf. Or, A Supplement to Apuleius’s Golden Ass. […], London: Printed for T. Cooper, […], OCLC 5211642, page 119:

     [P]ut the Caſe that the Nobleman of the ancienter Family does not indeed diſgrace his Dignity, but adds nothing to it; having nothing extraordinary to recommend him or diſrecommend him: Whereas the other, by his perſonal Merit, has rais'd himſelf to an equal Dignity. Which of the two in this Suppoſition deſerves the greater Eſteem?

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword: The Turk Street Mile”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, OCLC 483591931, page 2:

     'I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,' the Chief was saying. 'An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. They tell me there was a recognized swag-market down here.'

2. Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.

   an ancient author  an ancient empire

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion, OL 4103950W:

     Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.

   • 2013 July–August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 4:

     Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

3. (historical) Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.
4. (obsolete) Experienced; versed.
   • Berners

     Though [he] was the youngest brother, yet he was the most ancient in the business of the realm.

5. (obsolete) Former; sometime.
   • Alexander Pope

     They mourned their ancient leader lost.

• modern

ancient (plural ancients)

1. A person who is very old.
2. A person who lived in ancient times.
3. (heraldry, archaic) A flag, banner, standard or ensign.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests..

4. (Britain, law) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.
5. (obsolete) A senior; an elder; a predecessor.
   • Hooker

     Junius and Andronicus […] in Christianity […] were his ancients.

Corruption of ensign.

ancient (plural ancients)

1. (obsolete, rare) ensign or flag
2. (obsolete, rare) the bearer of a flag; ensign

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at
• ancient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ancient in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ancient at OneLook Dictionary Search

• cantine, catenin, enactin