Meaning:
This is a term to refer to something that is old and outdated. In other words something that has been in existence for a long time.
Usage:
- She and her family follow traditional practices as old as the hills
- The technology maybe new, but the concept is as old as the hills
- He has his office in a building as old as the hills
Etymology:
The origin of the idiom ‘as old as the hills’ is biblical. The phrase is derived from Job, 15:7 and was first seen in the 1535 Miles Coverdale’s Bible. The idiom did not gain popularity in its current form until 1734, when Francis Hutchinson’s A Defense of the Ancient Historians read: “As vales are old as the hills, so loughs and rivers must be as old as they.”
