[Ads-l] years young

[Jonathan Lighter]

Heh.

The correct date of the N.Y. Times cite is Dec. 21, *1873.*

JL

On Thu, Sep 3, 2020 at 3:05 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

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


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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