single word requests - Adjective equivalent of "As old as the hills"


Is there a one-word, more formal adjective for the expression "as old as the hills" ?


The idea is that there is something very old but a little forgotten today (and usually one uses this expression when speaking to someone who doesn't know about the thing).


Example sentences : "This soup is great, you really need to tell us the recipe!" "It's nothing original you know. The recipe is (missing adjective here). The Romans already knew about it."


"There's civil war again in region X, I am a little surprised." "You know, the enmity between ethnic groups Y and Z there is (missing adjective here). We have historical records from ten centuries ago"



Answer



A simple one that seems to closely fit your sample sentences is age-old. Admittedly it sounds perhaps a little more natural to say is an age-old one, but is age-old works for me. It doesn't have the negative connotations of some of the "old" words, yet implies that the subject has been around for a long long time. timeworn is in a similar bracket.


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