# Scots: auld lang syne



## Deborah White

Hello,

I am studying or appreciating the famous Scottish ballad _Auld Lang Syne_, whose tone is familiar to me (and to many others of course) for a long time. 

With the help of many notes I have worked out much of the poem, but I still feel puzzled by this line --- *Sin' *auld lang syne. 

I now know, auld: old, lang: long, syne: since. But I haven't any reference to the shortened word--sin'.

*What is the full form of sin' ? What is the English elequalent of it?* 

Thank you in advance for your help!


ps: In some articles, sin' is translated as 'since', but if this is so, then it seems very ingrammatical to read 'since old long since'. Or is it the very characteristic of the original Scottish phrase that no English translation can ever convey?


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## modus.irrealis

My understanding is that _syne_ here means "since" in the sense "ago", so "sin' auld lang syne" is "since old long ago" or "since old times."


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## CapnPrep

Deborah White said:


> *What is the full form of sin' ? What is the English elequalent of it?*


The full form is the obsolete word _sithen_ (which is also the source of _syne_). The English equivalent is _since _(probably also derived from _sithence _< _sithen_ + _s_).

In "Sin' auld lang syne", _sin'_ is a preposition meaning 'from, after, subsequent to' (= _since_), and "lang syne" is a noun meaning 'a time long ago, long since'.


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## soleil-sol

Hello, 
I would like to know if someone can help me define what the meaning of auld lang syne means.  I tried defining each word in the word forum but there was no definition for auld and syne.  I was wondering if these two words were old words that are no longer used in present common German speech. 

Thank you


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## Dan2

It's Scottish, not German.
Literally, the words mean "old long since".


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## berndf

It is not German but *Scots*.
*Moderator note: The thread is therfore moved to the appropriate forum.*

_Syne_ means _after, since, ago_. The combination _lang syne_ mean _a long time ago_. _Auld_ means _old_ serving as an augmentation. Hence _aulde lang syne_ means _a very long time ago, _and the famous _days of aulde lang syne_ means _very old times_.


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## CapnPrep

This phrase has also been discussed in English Only:
* auld lang syne..good old days? *

And once before here in OL:
*Scottish: sin' in "Sin' auld lang syne"*


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