In Short – Issue 2 (Winter 2025)

January 31, 2025

Aria by Sean Bw Parker

Auld is Old: An Abecedarium

By Alice Lowe

Aged, ancient, archaic (having passed its usefulness), antiquated, advanced, alt (German), auld (Scots, as in auld lang syne), broken-down, biddy (early 17th century “old woman,” originally denoting a hen), blue-hair, Boomer (the oldest Baby Boomers are pushing 80, the youngest passing 60). Crone, codger, coot, curmudgeon, “[of a] certain age,” dated, doddering, dotard, dinosaur, duffer, decrepit, defunct, dilapidated. Elder, elderly, extinct, frail, feeble, fossil, fogey, fuddy-duddy, gray-hair (graybeard, gray anything), geezer, getting on, geriatric, grandma/grandpa/granny/gramps (I was a grandmother at 48, barely middle-aged), golden ager, has-been, historic, hoary, infirm, impaired.

Joking and kidding are often double-edged, their subtext cutting, mocking, taunting. Once someone gave me a ride to my running group’s beach ten-miler up the coast. I was the oldest of the bunch, but faster and fitter than some of the others. When we were leaving, the leader said to my ride, “Thanks for driving Miss Daisy.” Was she kidding or sticking a knife in me? She got the laughs; I felt the jab. 

Long in the tooth (gums receding in aging horses and people), mature, medieval, musty, mzee (Swahili), no spring chicken, not long for this world, old, oldie, older, oldster, oldest, old-fashioned, old school, old bag/hag/bat/cow (reserved for women, not just the old, but the ugly, senile, fat), outdated, outmoded, out to pasture, obsolete, over the hill, one foot in the grave. Past it, past one’s prime, passé, prehistoric, prune (dried up, wrinkled), pensioner (Brits use the redundant “old age pensioner”), pops, qadim (Arabic); retiree, relic.

Senior, senior citizen, seasoned, superannuated, senile, senescent, shriveled, staryy (Russian), sheng nu (Chinese slang for “leftover women”), Stone Age, tired, timeworn, time-tested, time-honored (it’s all about time), used, venerable, vintage, vieja, vieille, vecchia (Spanish, French, Italian, from the Latin vetus), worn down, worn out, wintry, weathered, withered, wizened (having nothing to do with wisdom or wizardry).

Words that convey respect harken to a time when the aged were thought to have the wisdom of their years to bestow on their progeny. Elders are leaders in tribes and churches. They’re exalted. Time-tested and time-honored speak to reliability, though they’re rarely used about people. Venerable denotes dignity and honor, and vintage is valued, at least in wine.

Years and years and years. The years go by. The years in your life, the life in your years. Yishian (Hebrew). Young at heart (a sop to sentimentality). Zesty, like feisty and spry, describes someone who’s energetic and agile, but often they’re thrown in almost as oxymorons, implying that it’s unusual and remarkable for an old person to still be feisty, spry, or zesty, full of zip and zing. And often qualified: “That’s Alice,” I would hear among the younger runners. “She’s really fast … for her age.” 

Alice Lowe (she/her) writes about life, language, food and family in San Diego, California. Her essays are widely published, including this past year in Big City Lit, Bluebird Word, New World Writing, Bridge VIII, Skipjack Review, BurningWord, Stoneboat, and Bookends Review. She has been cited twice in Best American Essays and nominated for Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net. Alice has written extensively on Virginia Woolf’s life and work and is a regular contributor at Blogging Woolf. She’s part of the contributing collective at Bloom and a peer reviewer for Whale Road Review. Read and reach her at www.aliceloweblogs.wordpress.com.