A Scottish and older English way of saying 'old.'
From Old English 'eald,' the direct ancestor of modern 'old.' Scottish and Northern English dialects preserved this pronunciation, especially famous in Burns's 'Auld Lang Syne.'
Scottish English kept the medieval pronunciation of 'old' alive while England moved on—that's why 'auld' survived; isolated mountain communities are language time capsules that preserve how people used to sound.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.