etymology - What is the oldest common English word?


I'm trying to formalize What is the oldest still-in-use English word? which was closed as vague.


Consider the "age" of a word to be the length of time since it was first used with the (more-or-less) the current meaning and pronunciation.


Obviously, there are lots of words date from Classical Antiquity: Coitus, agenda, and terminus are among thousands of words that would mean the same to Julius Caesar as they do to us.
[Assignment for the under-worked: write a logical, grammatical English sentence consisting entirely of such words; extra credit if it also makes sense in Latin.]


There are even words preserved untouched from ancient Greece (echo, academe, halcyon, stasis).


Are there any word that pre-dates those, such as some word that a Mycenaean potter or a Hittite horseman would say that, I don't know, Matt Lauer would understand perfectly?


My guess is ma, meaning mother, but I have no proof.



Answer



One candidate would be the Hittite word for "water", which was "watar" or "wadar" (there are different views on exactly what the consonant was).


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