Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age

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NEVER TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY: WORDS ABOUT AGE

S.A.T. Terms

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 2

Antediluvian (ant tea dill loo vee un): very old, old-fashioned, primitive.

Adjective

When my father jokingly introduced my Auntie Delilah as Auntie-Diluvian, she reminded him that she may be old, but she would always be his baby sister.

Ante means before. Something antediluvian literally means before The Flood… the one in the Bible. You call someone antediluvian, you’re saying she makes Noah look young.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 3

Antiquated (ant tick waited): old fashioned, out of date, obsolete, old.

adjective

The antiquated car was quite dilapidated and sported a bumper sticker saying, “Honk if anything falls off!”

Logically enough, antiquated and antique come from the same Latin term.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 4

Archaic (ark hay ick): ancient, antiquated, old-fashioned.

adjective

I don’t want to say my old car is archaic, but the license-plate holder reads, “Bedrock Motors, Fred Flintstone, Proprietor.”

The root arch means old or original. Archeology is the study of the past, of the older, original people and places.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 5

Callow (rhymes with, shallow): young and inexperienced, immature.adjective

The blind date had a callow sense of humor, ending every evening with the sick joke, “You’ve stolen my heart, but I have another one at home in the freezer.”

This word has an interesting background. Originally, callow meant bald or naked and referred to a bird that lacked the feathers needed for flying. Because the bald birds were young birds, the word developed the secondary meaning of young and immature.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 6

Hoary (rhymes with story): very old, ancient.

adjective

The speaker who was obviously fond of hoary jokes, trotted out the aged line, “I don’t mind getting older, ‘cause after the Middle Ages come the Renaissance!”

Hoary has a second meaning of gray or white, or having gray hair from age. You can call your grandfather the Silver Fox, or you can call him hoary.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 7

Immature (rhymes with, him that sure): not completely grown, not finished.

Derek apologized to his girlfriend for his immature behavior, saying he was genetically incapable of growing up.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 8

Ingénue (on gin oooh): an innocent, inexperienced, unworldly young woman.noun

The starlet said she didn’t mind playing an ingénue as she knew she looked young for her age, but she was tired of always playing the

dumb blonde.

The word ingenuous is related to ingénue. If you're ingenuous, you are simple and naïve. A young girl asking a pregnant lady, “Why are you so fat?” is ingenuous.

Don’t confuse ingenuous, meaning naïve, with ingenious, meaning intelligent, like a genius. Confusing these two words is an easy mistake to make, especially under time pressure on the exam.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 9

Jejune (rhymes with, duh spoon): not mature, childish.adjective

The speaker was popular with elementary schoolchildren because his jejune humor was on their level, with jokes along the lines of, “What are goose bumps for? To keep geese from speeding!”

This word actually got its definition by mistake. Jejune originally came from the Latin term meaning empty. Jejune usually meant barren, not interesting, dull. But over the years, confusion with the term juvenile has resulted in a third meaning for jejune: childish. In French, the term jeune means young, as in jeune enfant (young child).

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 10

Juvenescent (rhymes with, you’ve an ess sent): becoming young, growing youthful.

adjective

The cosmetic company called its new brand Juvenescence, because it said the product would turn back the hands of time to make a younger you.

My mother always used to joke about being old. Whenever she made a comment about something from the past, she’d say, “Am I dating myself? I probably am, but at least when I date myself, I don’t have to dress up!”

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 11

Neophyte (rhymes with, see oh fight): beginner, novice.Noun

The new legal secretary was such a neophyte that she thought Roe vs. Wade were two ways to cross a river!

You probably know the root neo means new (think of the neonatal care unit for newborn babies in the hospital). If you’ve had biology (or better yet, botany), you know that phytos means to grow. A neophyte is new at growing; a beginner, or a new growth, like a fresh sprout on a plant.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 12

Newfangled (rhymes with, too tangled): new, novel.adjective

The curmudgeonly old cowpoke called the computer a “confuser,” and said he wasn’t going to use such a newfangled device.

Newfangled has a slightly derogatory connotation (mental meaning). Use the word newfangled when you’re being funny and a little bit insulting.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 13

Novice (nah viss): a beginner, an apprentice.

noun

The more experienced nurses teased the novice, saying she had to carry her supplies with her at all times or she could be fired for “being absent without gauze.”

The root nov means new. A novel idea is a new idea. Ever hear of the province of Nova Scotia in Canada? The name simply means New Scotland.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 14

Precocious (pre coe shuss): developed or matured beyond what is normal for the age, prematurely developed.

adjective

The fifth grader was so precocious that he was able to do tenth-grade math without breaking into a cerebral sweat.

Pre- means before; -ous means full of. Think of precocious as being “full of before,” or advanced for one’s age.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 15

Puerile (rhymes with, sure while): childish, silly, immature.adjective

It was obvious he was fond of puerile humor from the license plate on his black jeep that said “baa baa.” (Get it? Remember hearing when you were a kid the nursery rhyme that began, “Baa baa, black sheep, have you any wool?” Black sheep, black jeep? Trust me, it’s funny!)

Think of puerile as “pure child.” The term is pejorative (critical) and means immature. Being childlike (innocent, naïve) is nice and sweet; being childish means you are pouting and throwing temper tantrums like a toddler.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 16

Senescence (rhymes with, when yes sense): growing old, aging.Noun

When Amy, thinking she was clever, called into school saying she wouldn’t be in that day because she was suffering from senescence, the savvy principal responded, “We’re all getting older every day, so get yourself in here pronto!”

Actually, Amy needed to go to school to learn how to use senescence correctly. The term actually means “growing old,” not “growing older.” In other words, you rarely use the term about someone young, like a high schooler.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 17

Senescence (cont.)

You had juvenescence earlier, meaning growing younger. Senescence is the flipside of that coin. Don’t confuse senescence with senility. Everyone is senescent; we’re all growing older. But not everyone turns senile (see the following word in this list).

Bonus: Do you know the word savvy, used to describe the principal in the preceding example? It means shrewd, understanding, discerning– knowing what’s going on.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 18

Senile (rhymes with, she while): showing deterioration from old age, especially mental impairment and confusion.adjective

After many years, the once dashing war veteran became senile in the eyes of his children and grandchildren.

Although senility is usually associated with the elderly, not all old people are senile, and not all senile people are elderly. A type of premature senility can afflict young people.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 19

Superannuated (super ann you ated): too old or worn for further work; old-fashioned, outdated.adjective

The man finally agreed to take a pension, claiming that he was superannuated when all he wanted to do was sleep late, have breakfast, take a nap, have lunch, take a nap, have dinner, and go to bed early.

The root super means extra or above; annus is Latin for year. If you have “extra years,” you are old.

Bonus word: Do you know the word clinomania? It means an overwhelming desire to stay in bed. If you’re in the middle of a snowstorm and just want to pull the covers over your head and sleep in all day, you are in the throes of clinomania.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 20

Tyro (rhymes with, why bro): a novice, a beginner.

noun

The tyro-psychiatrist was so naïve he believed it when the bartender told him, “Sorry buddy, we can’t serve you a drink– you’re too Jung!”

(If you’re not laughing hysterically at my joke, you may not know that Jung was a famous psychiatrist.)

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 21

Venerable (rhymes with, when her able): worthy of respect by reason of age and dignity.adjective

We were pleased to meet the venerable patriarch, who said he became wealthy by following John D. Rockefeller’s advice: 1. Go to work early. 2. Stay at work late. 3. Find oil.

To venerate someone is to revere or respect him, but venerable also carries the connotation of respect earned over the years. You venerate an 80-year-old, not an eight-year-old.

No, don’t confuse venerable with venereal, as in the disease. The term venereal has a much prettier derivation than you would think: It comes from Venus, the goddess of love.

Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Words About Age 22

Veteran (vet er un): experienced, practiced.adjective

The veteran tour guide, anticipating the question, told his group of tourists visiting the prison that Alcatraz meant “pelican” and that the island was named after the large bird colony there.

If veteran means experienced, what do you suppose inveterate means? It means habitual, long-standing, deep-rooted. This word shows one example in which the prefix in- means “inside” instead of “not.”