age

Etymology

From Middle English age, Old French aage, eage, edage, from an assumed Vulgar Latin *aetāticum, derived from Latin aetātem, itself derived from aevum (“lifetime”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“vital force”). Compare French âge.

Displaced native Old English ieldu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eɪd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪdʒ

Noun

age (countable and uncountable, plural ages)

1. (countable) The amount of time that some being has been alive, or that some thing has been in existence, as measured from its birth or origin until the present or until some other given reference point. (Often measured in number of years; alternatively in months, days, hours, etc.; see also the usage notes)

   "What is the age of your oldest child?" — "He's ten." (ten years old)

   What were their ages at the time of their marriage?

   We can determine the age of fossils using radiometric dating.

   What is the present age of the earth?

   • 2013 July 1, Peter Wilby, “Finland’s education ambassador spreads the word”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 16 July 2017; republished as “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, London, 2013 July 19, page 30:

     Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.

2. (uncountable) The state of being old; the latter part of life.

   Synonyms: old age, dotage, senility, seniority; see also Thesaurus:old age

   Antonym: youth

   • 1936 Feb. 15, Ernest Hemingway, letter to Maxwell Perkins:

     Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was nothing between youth and age.

   Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age, sometimes age just shows up all by itself.

3. (countable) Any particular stage of life.

   the age of infancy

4. (countable) The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested.

   the age of consent; the age of discretion

5. (uncountable) Maturity; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.

   Synonyms: majority, adulthood

   to come of age; she is now of age

6. (countable) A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.

   Synonyms: epoch, time, era; see also Thesaurus:era

   the golden age of cinema; the first age of colonialism; a bygone age

   • 1970, Jim Theis, “The Eye of Argon”, in OSFAN‎, volume 10, Chapter 3½, page 33:

     Encircling the marble altar was a congregation of leering shamen. Eerie chants of a bygone age, originating unknown eons before the memory of man, were being uttered from the buried recesses of the acolytes' deep lings ^[sic].

   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel: The world’s thirst for oil could be nearing a peak. That is bad news for producers, excellent for everyone else.”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 1 August 2013:

     The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

   1. The time or era in history when someone or something was alive or flourished.

      the age of Pericles; the age of the dinosaurs

   2. (countable) A great period in the history of the Earth.

      The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age.

   4. (countable, geology) The shortest geochronologic unit, being a period of thousands to millions of years; a subdivision of an epoch (or sometimes a subepoch).

      The Tithonian Age was the last in the Late Jurassic Epoch.

7. (astrology) One of the twelve divisions of a Great Year, equal to roughly 2000 years and governed by one of the zodiacal signs; a Platonic month.
   • 1911 April 10, The Evening News, Sydney, page 8, column 2:

     Mr Lewis says we are living in the age of Aquarius, which means that the world is at present passing through the zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the airy constellation.

9. (countable) A period of one hundred years; a century.

   Synonym: centennium

10. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (countable) The people who live during a particular period.
11. (countable, uncommon, possibly dated) A generation.

    There are three ages living in her house.

12. (countable, hyperbolic) A long time.

    Synonyms: eternity, yonks; see also Thesaurus:eon

    It’s been an age since we last saw you.

13. (countable) lifespan, lifetime; the total time that some being is alive from birth to death (or some category of beings, on average).

    The age of man is three score years and ten.

    Thrice the age of a dog is that of a horse.

    • 1872, George Duncan Gibb, The Physical Condition of Centenarians, as Derived from Personal Observation in Nine Genuine Examples, London, page 13:

      The CHAIRMAN said if Lord Bacon had asserted that man's age exceeded that of all other living creatures, he must have included the patriarchs in his calculation. Without doubt the age of many animals exceeded that of man. [...] Indeed, if the assumed age of the patriarchs be correct, it is against our own experience, it being an admitted fact that the duration of human life has increased. The age of the patriarchs was by some attributed to the effect of certain waters upon the cartilages.

14. (countable, poker) The entitlement of the player to the left of the dealer to pass the first round in betting, and then to come in last or stay out; also, the player holding this position; the eldest hand.

Verb

age (third-person singular simple present ages, present participle ageing or (US) aging, simple past and past participle aged)

1. (intransitive) To grow aged; to become old; to show marks of age.

   He grew fat as he aged.

   • 1824, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations:

     I am aging; that is, I have a whitish, or rather a light-coloured, hair here and there. Sober thinking brings them

   • 2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist:

     As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time.

   1. (intransitive, of a statement, prediction, etc.) To suffer the passage of time so as to later be viewed or turn out in a certain way.

      His prediction that we didn't stand a chance hasn't aged well, now that we've won the cup.

      The sitcom was made in the 1970s and its casual sexism has not aged well.

2. (transitive) To cause to grow old; to impart the characteristics of age to.

   Grief ages us.

   • 1998 Fall, Mare Freed, “Aluhana”, in The Antioch Review, volume 56, number 4:

     To look at the hair by itself you'd say it was actually quite pretty, but on her head the gray sure ages her.

   1. To allow to mature.

      We age the whiskey for five years.

   2. To treat or tamper with in order to give a false appearance of age.

      This clock is modern, but it has been deliberately aged in an attempt to make it seem antique.

3. (transitive) To determine the age of (the length of time that something has been alive or in existence).

   There are several ways to age trees.

4. (transitive) To indicate or reveal that (a person) has been alive for a certain period of time, especially a long one.

   I clearly remember hearing the news of Kennedy's assassination. That ages me.

   • 1992 June 14, This Week with David Brinkley (television production), spoken by [James?] Carville, via ABC:

     Mr. [David] Brinkley started out with network news. We got our news- I think it was the Huntley-Brinkley Report. I'm probably aging myself now, okay?

5. (transitive, figuratively) To allow (something) to persist by postponing an action that would extinguish it, as a debt.

   Money's a little tight right now. Let's age our bills for a week or so.

6. (transitive, accounting) To categorize by age.

   One his first assignments was to age the accounts receivable.

See also

• age on Wikiquote.Wikiquote
• Appendix:Age by decade

Further reading

• “age”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “age”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “age”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• G. E. A., EGA, Ega, GAE

Etymology

From Old Norse aka (“to drive”), from Proto-Germanic *akaną, cognate with Swedish åka. The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti, which is also the source of Latin agō (whence also Danish agere), Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aːɣə/, [ˈæːjə], [ˈæːæ]
• Homophone: ae

Verb

age (past tense agede, past participle aget)

1. (intransitive, dated) to drive (in a vehicle)
2. (transitive, obsolete) to drive (a vehicle), transport

Further reading

• “age” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology

Ca. 1800, from a dialectal (southern Oïl or Franco-Provençal) form of haie, from Frankish *haggju. Cognate with English hedge, which see for more. Doublet of haie and quai.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʒ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʒ
• Homophones: ages (general), âge, âges (some speakers)

Noun

age m (plural ages)

1. beam (central bar of a plough)
2. shaft

Further reading

• “age”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Verb

age

1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of agir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Alternative forms

• aige

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /ˈɛɡə/

Preposition

age

1. Munster form of ag (used before a possessive determiner)
   • 1939, Peig Sayers, “Inghean an Cheannaidhe”, in Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, Description d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études; 270) (overall work in French), Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, page 193:

     Ní raibh aoinne cloinne age n-a muinntir ach í agus do mhéaduigh sin uirrim agus grádh na ndaoine don inghean óg so.

     Her parents had no children but her, and that increased the esteem and love of the people for this young girl.

Romanization

age

1. Rōmaji transcription of あげ

Etymology

From Proto-Yeniseian *ʔaqV (“to make sour, to rot”). Compare Assan bar-ak (“rotten”) and Arin bar-oje (“rotten”).

Adjective

age

1. rotten

Etymology

Imperative form of agō

Interjection

age

1. well now, well then, come now (transition)
2. very well, good, right (sign of affirmation)

Verb

age

1. second-person singular present active imperative of agō

Noun

age (Raguileo spelling)

1. (anatomy) face

References

• Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French aage, from Vulgar Latin *aetāticum, derived from Latin aetātem.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²ɑː.jə/, /²ɑː.ɡə/

Etymology 1

From Old Norse agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz. Cognates include English awe.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse aga.

References

• “age” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• Ivar Aasen (1850) “aga”, in Ordbog over det norske Folkesprog‎ (in Danish), Oslo: Samlaget, published 2000
• Ivar Aasen (1850) “Agje”, in Ordbog over det norske Folkesprog‎ (in Danish), Oslo: Samlaget, published 2000