Nonage

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Nonage

Postby Slava » Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:25 pm

A good word to use instead of under-age or adolescent.

By the way, why aren't people in their nonage called nonagenarians?

Yuk, yuk.

Sorry,

Slava

Bailey
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2114
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:51 pm

Postby Bailey » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:03 pm

and the converse is dotage?

mark very-old Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









User avatar
gailr
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1945
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:40 am
Contact:

Postby gailr » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:43 pm

Thanks for nonage, Slava.

NOUN: 1. The period during which one is legally underage. 2. A period of immaturity: “The bravest achievements were always accomplished in the nonage of a nation” (Thomas Paine).

ETYMOLOGY: Middle English nounage, from Anglo-Norman, variant of Old French nonaage : non-, non- + aage, age; see age.



Slogging through the etymological labyrinth, I find that the ne- origin of the "non" part also contributed to naughty and renegade, also descriptions of immaturity.

-gailr
Is that why NO! is the favorite word of two-year-olds?

Grogie
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 656
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:23 am
Location: Michigan, United States

Postby Grogie » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:34 am

Excellent word Slava. Thank you.

Perry
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2306
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:50 am
Location: Asheville, NC

Postby Perry » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:02 pm

I am long past my nonage, but young enough to be naughty given half a chance.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

Bailey
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2114
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:51 pm

Postby Bailey » Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:10 am

and yet nonagenarian means being of great age, in the nineties..
non·a·ge·nar·i·an (nn-j-nâr-n, nn-)
n.
A person 90 years old or between 90 and 100 years old.
Just thought y'all might enjoy what that little insignificant "n" did in the middle of this word.

mark stoop-ed-with-age Bailey
or
mark Acrocephalic-he-with-the-pointy-head Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb










Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 35 guests