eldest  

‘of persons or things: Most aged, farthest advanced in age’

Lexical development traced from the Tamil root:

    E. eldeste, eldust, heldast, heldest < O.E. (Merc.) eldrost ‘most advanced in age, that was born first’ < ealdald ‘old’ < Proto-G. althaz ‘grown up, adult’ < el < al- Tamil al