Is there any difference?

[Aquagility]

What is the significance, if any, between ELDER and OLDER, as in elder brother or older brother.

It has been suggested that elder in this concext implies only one brother, while older could mean one of many. If this is so, how could such difference be indicated in the case of one or more "younger" siblings?

[MatydaLover]

As adjectives, Chamber's doesn't differentiate them. I would check my other six dictionaries, but they're all older editions of Chamber's.

Interesting though, that "elder" wouldn't sound right in that sentence.

[Quizmonster]

�Elder' as an adjective is generally used only in the context of family seniority..."He is my elder brother", as you suggest. It is used where only two siblings are being compared. If three or more are involved, 'older/oldest' is used.
(In political situations, the phrase 'an elder statesman' is sometimes used simply to indicate long service.) Re 'younger', the difference could perhaps be indicated only by using 'a'...'He is a younger brother of mine', which would suggest that there are again more than one involved.

[andrea81]

Older is used to describe an object but Elder would be a person such as a family member.

[Aquagility]

Thanks to you all.
How do you do it, Quizmonster? Do you do a quick Google, or do you have a giant reference library. Or after so long in the game is your mind programmed to come up with the answers? Do tell!

[Quizmonster]

A bit of all three, Aqua, but more often 'b' and 'c' than 'a'!
There is also a 'd'...I've been on AnswerBank for well over five years and, prior to that, for several years on a similar USA-based Q & A site. Overall, I've answered about 10,000 questions and I soon grasped that many were hardy perennials and so started to create my very own 'encyclop�dia'.
Over the years I have refined it and it now contains almost 1200 ready-made 'answers' from 'abracadabra' through 'Magna Carta' to 'yoghurt'. When the appropriate query appears, I leap into my very own little Britannica, cut, paste, modify and... voil�!
Cheers

[Aquagility]

Very impressive! I have myself answered nearly 4000 since I joined AB in November '05, but these were nearly all crossword solutions. I am sure you get the same pleasure or even more when you are able to throw light on some esoteric query. Just don't give up, please!

[Quizmonster]

Thanks for your kind comment, Aqua. I have no intention of giving up before the hooded figure with the scythe appears! (I reached the three-score years and ten last weekend, however!)

[Quizmonster]

Oops! That was about 10,000 questions here and 9,000+ on the American site before it was summarily closed down. (I'd almost talked myself into believing they would invite me over there if I made it to 10,000. Maybe that's why they jacked it!)

[Aquagility]

Even more impressive! And congratulations. But at 70 you are not much more than a child! I could (almost) be your father! You would have been six when I joined up.

[VS Prasad]

The adjective elder is not a synonym for elderly. In comparisons between two persons, elder means "older" but not necessarily "old": My elder sister is sixteen; my younger, twelve. (Eldest is used when three or more persons are compared: He is the eldest of four brothers.) In other contexts elder does denote relatively advanced age but with the added component of respect for a person's achievement, as in an elder statesman. If age alone is to be expressed, one should use older or elderly rather than elder: A survey of older Americans; an elderly waiter. � Unlike elder and its related forms, the adjectives old, older, and oldest are applied to things as well as to persons.

An elder statesman is an older person who is respected and asked for advice because of their past experience.

Your elders and betters old-fashioned - people who are older than you and who should be treated with respect.

Elders are generally any learned or authoritative figures in religious traditions.

http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/books/con cise/WORDS-E.html