[Ads-l] years young

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Below is a fascinating 1850 citation containing the phrase "fifty
years young". The author bemoans the celebration of aging. He also
presents a fantastical reverse-aging framework to justify the
anomalous phrase.

Is this the origin of the "years young" template? I do not know. More
evidence is required.

This sense of "fifty years young" might be considered conventional or
literal within the reverse-aging framework, so this use differs a bit
from the other citations.

Year: 1850
Title: Charcoal Sketches: Second Series
Author: The Late Joseph C. Neal (Joseph Clay Neal)
Editor: Mrs. J. C. Neal
Publisher: Stringer & Townsend, New York
Chapter: The Merry Christmas and the Happy New Year of Mr. Dunn Brown
Start Page 180, Quote Page 184

{Begin excerpt]
"Your birthday, Mr. Dunn Brown--is it not? How old,
Mr. Dunn Brown?"

"How old?"--why not, O world!--why not, in this
matter, change and transmute your phraseology? How old!
--is it agreeable thus to be reminded of the course of time
and of the progress of decay, by your "how old?" Would
it not be as easy to say, "How young are you now," instead
of thus continually reminding people that their span on earth
is marching rapidly to its close?

"And here it is again!" exclaims Mr. Dunn Brown.

"Why could not our lives have been begun at the other
end, so that we might be growing younger every day, instead
of dwindling into wrinkles and gray hairs?--then they would
say 'fifty years young,' instead of 'fifty years old,' which
would be vastly more agreeable--'getting young fast'--
wouldn't that be nice? But to rejoice over birthdays, the
way they have them now, it's the silliest thing I ever heard
of.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Sep 3, 2020 at 5:28 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The Oliver Wendell Holmes example was also cited by the dearly departed
> Geoff Nunberg in a 2004 New York Times piece:
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/weekinreview/do-not-go-gently-geezers-gerries-and-golden-agers.html
>
> In that same piece, Geoff foresaw that "boomer" would eventually become
> pejorative, 15 years ago before the "ok boomer" phenomenon.
>
> --Ben
>
> 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.
> > >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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