Act Your Age
Age is a high price to pay for maturity
Saturdays are perfect days for venerable surprises. Surprise—we’re talking about vocabulary related to age today!
Did you hear that the world’s oldest person, Maria Branyas Morera, died a few days ago at the tender age of 117? It’s hard to imagine that some people still living have memories of the world before the first World War. It may also be hard to believe that we have terms to describe people who have lived for more than 100 years, but that’s what makes vocabulary so much fun, isn’t it?
When I first looked into the words used to describe different ages, I expected the obvious connection to the root GEN- meaning birth or class to words like septuagenarian. Surprisingly, though, all of the following terms are linked to the Latin series of distributive numerals:
denarian (noun) - a person between 10 and 19 years old
BREAKDOWN: DEN- (containing ten) + -ARIAN (one who is)
vicenarian (noun) - a person between 20 and 29 years old
BREAKDOWN: VICENI- (twenty each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
tricenarian (noun) - a person between 30 and 39 years old
BREAKDOWN: TRICEN- (thirty each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
quadragenarian (noun) - a person between 40 and 49 years old
BREAKDOWN: QUADRAGEN- (forty each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
quinquagenarian (noun) - a person between 50 and 59 years old
BREAKDOWN: QUINQUAGEN- (fifty each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
sexagenarian (noun) - a person between 60 and 69 years old
BREAKDOWN: SEXAGEN- (sixty each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
septuagenarian (noun) - a person between 70 and 79 years old
BREAKDOWN: SEPTUAGEN- (seventy each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
octogenarian (noun) - a person between 80 and 89 years old
BREAKDOWN: OCTOGEN- (eighty each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
nonagenarian (noun) - a person between 90 and 99 years old
BREAKDOWN: NONAGEN- (ninety each) + -ARIAN (one who is)
centenarian (noun) - a person between 100 and 109 years old
BREAKDOWN: CENTEN- (containing one hundred) + -ARIAN (one who is)
supercentenarian (noun) - a person 110 years old or older years old
BREAKDOWN: SUPER- (over) + CENTEN- (containing one hundred) + -ARIAN (one who is)
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.” —Mark Twain