age

Pronunciation

• IPA: /eɪdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English age, borrowed from Old French aage (“age; life, lifetime; maturity”) (earlier eage, edage),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *aetāticum,^[2][4][3] an extension of Latin aetās (“period of life, age”),^[2][3] contracted from aevitās, from aevum (“lifetime, eternity”),^[3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *aiw- (“vital force, life; long life, eternity”).^[2][4][3] The root also gave Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, “age”) and Old English ā (“always”).^[3] It is related to aeon, eternal, primeval, coeval and aye.^[5][6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long but indefinite period of history: about 1275,^[3] or the late 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Age drove out the native eld, Old English eald, “old age; an age”.^[2] The length of a person's life and “old age” are early 14th-century senses, and the effects of old age mid-15th century.^[2] In early modern English an age could also be a century, which explains the plural in Middle Ages and Dark Ages.^[2] In geology the word is used of periods in the earth's history by 1855, and in archaeology, as in Stone Age, from 1865.^[2] Ages, “a long time”, is a hyperbole recorded from 1577.^[7] The verb “to grow old” is from the late 14th century,^[2] and “to make old” from before 1420, in Lydgate.^[3] Act one's age is from 1927.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – a period of history.^[3]
• early 14th century – length of life; old age.^[2]
• late 14th century – verb, to grow old.^[2]
• before 1420 – verb, to make old (Lydgate).^[3]
• 1577 – ages, a long time.^[7]
• 1855 – a geological age.^[2]
• 1865 – Stone Age.^[2]
• 1927 – act one's age.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The length of time that someone or something has existed.
2. The age at which certain legal rights begin: come of age.
3. A stage of life: middle age.
4. Old age.
5. A period of history or of the earth's history: the Stone Age.
6. (informal, often plural) A long time.

Verb

1. To grow or make old.
2. To mature or ripen, as wine or cheese.

Word family

• ager
• preage

Related words

• aeon
• eternal
• primeval
• coeval
• longevity
• aye
• aged

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)