[Ads-l] years young

[Jesse Sheidlower]

OED (revised):

P6. Chiefly humorous. —— years young  [after —— years old (see old adj. 4a)] : —— years old; usually with the implication that the person (or occasionally thing) referred to has or retains youthful vitality.

First example is Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1889 (quoted in Bartlett's Quotations!).

On Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 02:55:39PM -0400, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> 1879 _N.Y. Times_ (Dec. 21, 1873) 2: The Roxburgh Club...is now sixty-one
> years old, or sixty-one years young, for the young blood circulating
> therein has given a new lease to the club's vitality.
> 
> 
> Former presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886) is meant:
> 
> 1884 _Alllentown [Pa.] Critic_  (May 27) 2: A cotemporary [sic] speaks of
> your Uncle Tilden as only seventy years young. Many a youth north of that
> age is earning his living by the sweat of his brow here in Allentown. To
> call the Greystone Sage old is an insult to many a Lehigh countian.
> 
> I haven't checked OED, but I thought the antiquity of these exx. might be
> diverting.
> 
> JL
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org