Eltern

Etymology
From, from , from. Compare 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.

The form is equivalent to a nominalised comparative of. The according spelling was common in Early Modern German, but later went out of fashion. Several sources claim that this was due to incomprehension of the etymology, but that seems implausible given its obviousness. An alternative explanation would be the desire to distinguish between and, which latter was commonly spelt.

Noun

 * 1) parents

Usage notes

 * 1) When a singular is required, the term  is used in everyday language. In certain fields such as psychology and genetics, however, the back-formed singular  is also used.
 * 2) When the word numeral “two” was still declined by gender, the masculine form was predominantly used, less often the neuter one.