('chiefly Brit') You should respect 'your elders and betters'. [=people who are older and more important than you]
('formal') He was my 'elder' by 11 months. [=he was 11 months older than I was]
He was told to respect his 'elders'. [=people who were older than he was]
(..) known as Nero... Nero, who has destroyed my home planet and most of its billion inhabitants. While the essence of our culture has been saved... in the elders who now reside upon this ship... I estimate no more than have survived. I am now a member of an endangered species. (..)2009 Star Trek