[Ads-l] Of age (P.S.)

[Laurence Horn]

It occurs to me that it’s usually “a woman of a certain age” rather than “a man…", and I can confirm that there are also a lot of hits for “a (wo)man of uncertain age”, whether resulting from mishearings or puns.  None of this necessarily relates directly to “a (wo)man/person of age”, of course.  (Is there any evidence that “of a certain age” began as a calque on the French counterpart “d’un certain âge”?) 

LH

> On Feb 8, 2017, at 5:10 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> 
> And not meaning "able/permitted to marry, have sex, etc."
> 
> Joel
> 
> 
>      From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2017 2:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Of age (P.S.)
> 
>> On Feb 8, 2017, at 2:31 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>> Heard on the news - Edward James Olmos discussing the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards refers to older people as - "people of age" - in the same way "people of color" is used.
>> 
> Or maybe a reduction of the traditional euphemism “of a certain age”?
> 
> LH
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