Etymologically
Log in

age

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 13:16. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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)