You win the thread.
Let me put it this way - if I died tomorrow not one person would write or say a young woman or a middle-aged woman died.
I avoid the use of the word elderly - I say old, very old and really really old. My oldest sibling is 72 - she's old but my friend's aunt who is 96 next month is really, really old. Using sociological definitions both are elderly.
I'll be 70 in a few years and am delighted to have lived such a healthy and enjoyable life to date. I don't care what they call me as long as I'm alive. Toddlers already think I'm ancient.

Happy New Year

I love it cause I get to sit back and relax. They think I'm too old to cook, go to the store, etc. LOL, so I let them do it. ( sipping my wine and relaxing).

When mom' good friend died in her thirties, we were too young to realize that she wasn't old.
The thing is we thought she was very old.

I remember when my mom qualified for her first "seniors" discount at age 55. She was not thrilled with the idea at all, but she accepted the price reduction.

...due to age-related conditions." Only when people are physically or mentally limited somehow by their age and accompanying maladies.

I've known 70-somethings who are retired and live alone, buy their own groceries, play tennis, go dancing, and "elderly" is only said about them ironically.

At some point "elderly" will mean at least 100. Anything less will be just "mature."

I know people in their 60's that could be considered elderly. On the other gand, my mother is 81. Still works full time as an operations manager. I would not consider her elderly by any means.

80s, but dependent on health/state of mind.

Perhaps we are as young as we feel. When I was 14, anyone over 40 seemed elderly. Now I sometimes feel elderly, but I will adamantly deny it most of the time. Sigh.

elderly is always 15 years older than me

Happy New Year!!!

....bong..

Im 71. The word elderly just makes me laugh. It's all a matter of what percentage of the population is older or younger than you. What you do with it is up to you. One thing I really love about getting older is not caring much about labels.

It’s sad but I now just accept that the person I see in the mirror is what the world sees.

I almost never look in the mirror. Inside I am still 26.

But, hey, if you insist that you're only 26 then let's go with that!

The 20s were a pretty chaotic time in my life. Everything started coming together in my 30s, though, so I'm staying right there.

Those are words to live by.



And laugh at the world every day!

I still work and play hard, feel great. But I understand that mirror thing. I would like to look in it, but every time I try to see myself, this ugly old woman jumps in front of me!

referring to us as her client's "elderly parents." I'm 69. I thought, "WTF? I'm elderly?"

This is how I define old age:

1 - Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them; (depression)

2 - While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, (blindness)
nor the clouds return after the rain: (cataracts)

3 - In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, (weak legs)
and the strong men shall bow themselves, (hunched back)
and the grinders cease because they are few, (lost teeth)
and those that look out of the windows be darkened, (rotted teeth)

4 - And the doors shall be shut in the streets, (mouth closed)
when the sound of the grinding is low, (no molars)
and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, (insomnia)
and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; (deafness)

5 - Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, (vertigo)
and fears shall be in the way,
and the almond tree shall flourish, (gray hair)
and the grasshopper shall be a burden, (bowed legs)
and desire shall fail. (impotence)

I'm chalking them up one by one.

If I feel icky and sick I feel "elderly". If I get pissed off about how good things used to be (like the weather before Climate Change) then I feel "elderly".
But if I still listen to The Clash or Pink Floyd on # 11, sing to Bohemian Rhapsody loudly and badly alone in my car, or dance around my kitchen as I listen to King Crimson (also cranked up to full volume) then I am "middle aged".

I’ve recently begun wondering when I should stop singing in my car. Your post makes it sound like never.

thank goodness my dog can't complain about my less than perfect pitch. She often requests songs from Pink Floyd's "Animals" album (I think that what her tail wags mean anyway).

With rheumatoid arthritis, I have more trouble getting around than do my brothers, who are 76 and 75.

The 76yo brother just came back from a cruise with his wife from Venice to Rome. Stops in Rhodes, Pompei, Dubrovnik.

In novels for women written at the beginning of the 20th century, 50yo women are depicted as elderly, decrepit, on the sidelines knitting.

I certainly do not feel "elderly," don't act it, and don't think I particularly look it.

A while back, I overheard a neighbor refer to "the older lady that lives in the end apartment," and realized with a shock and a bit of a laugh that he was talking about me.

There are neighbors here in their late 50s and early 60s who are in far worse shape than I am, and I think of them as elderly because of their health issues. Every day, I'm grateful for being healthy.

"Elderly," as someone already pointed out, is very subjective. I, for one, don't feel it and therefore reject that designation no matter how it's defined.

something mentally.

I think that is when the brain has settled in and people are just trapped in bodies that are aging. It's very sci-fi (to me).

I'm heading that way right now and it's weird. I'm learning to accept it (begrudgingly).

If every young person knew that you don't feel all that different from 27 when you are 30, 40 or 50 they might just feel a little different about mature people.

My mother turns 79 this year and she's going strong and don't think of her as elderly. She is running into issues that "older" people deal with but she's strong and pushes through. She has only in the last couple of years given up camping in the wild but still goes and stays in log cabins without creature comforts. She's perpetually between 48 and 58 in my mind just because of the difference in age between us. I'm sure mentally she's still about 27 and on really good days, we are both about 15.

thinks she is 27. She at least thinks like a 27 year old, though she complains continually about her 93 year old maladies.

I hope I'm that lucky but I think the maladies are little evil reminders that they aren't 27.

Your brain feels young and your body is taking a beating, I'd probably complain too and then I would feel bad about complaining but would do it anyway because it sucked.

The term "elder" seems to carry a positive connotation, like "Respect your elders". In fact, of the top of my head I cannot think of an instance when "elder" is used negatively. I think of it as synonymous with "wise".

On the other hand, "elderly" is negative. It is synonymous with "infirm" or "weak". (Yes, I know you can use "elderly" as a plural noun, but I'm speaking entirely of normal adjectival construction adding "ly" to the end of a noun.)

So how come when someone acts like an "elder", thus behaving "elderly", it is not a positive thing?

In that same vein, an "elder statesman" is someone worthy of respect and deference, but an "elderly statesman" makes you think of someone who is nearing the end of the line.

I'm 68 going on 40, but I know some people who are 68 going on 90.

going on 68. Not necessarily in health, but in their moribund outlook and general squareness.

ROFLMAO! Now that you mention it, i do know some like that!

Hope that helps clear things up.

An elderly primigravida is someone going into first childbirth after age 35.

When used for people about 70 and older "elderly" seems to me to have taken on a connotation of frailty or feebleness or has implications of other deficits.

Seriously, I am 58.

I love videogames, some cartoons, kids' movies, being a Brony, and a Trekkie.

I think it goes with the territory.

garbage and recycles, and I pay a young woman to clean for us and do our laundry. But I do the food shopping and make liberal use of my handicap sticker (I have arthritis in my lower back). But I make more frequent trips so I am not lugging back heavy bags of groceries.

I'm 71 but cannot get away with calling myself old.

I remember the demonstrations against the Vietnam War that I marched in. I proudly wear my pussy hat from last year. I remember old Beatles songs the way my parents remembered Gershwin and Porter.

is a young person, thinking, 'what the hell happened?'" -- anon. (as far as I know). I'm still listening to doo-wop. On my Echo Dot, most recently!

I know many of us old women who object to tradespeople calling them "Ma'am". I don't know why. I'm just happy to find politeness. Do they want everyone to call them by their first name? Or "Miss"? Maybe someone could explain this.

I think it's a mindset, not any certain number of years.

To me that word conjures up a degree of infirmity as well as age.

I am constantly annoyed by my age mates who are constantly complaining about aches and pains or talking about their surgeries. Despite the fact that I have totally gray hair, people are always surprised when I tell them how old I am. Apparently I don't act anywhere near my age.

say I embarrass them, I say WAHOO! Still car dance with the radio blasting. Live in an over 55 community and complain about the old coots around me. Still get dressed in costume and go out on Halloween. It's only a NUMBAH!!

I think elderly is a state of mind. I still have some fire left.

from 2014-early 2017), One of our dearest older friends gave me the title, "Immutable Truth: art essays 2014-2017." Some of it is based on my art trips to Europe I used to take. In retirement, I became an art historian. Luckily, I saw just about every masterpiece I wanted to see. I tracked them down in the Uffizi, the Bargello, the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the National Gallery in London, the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, the Magritte Museum and the National Gallery in Brussels, the Prado and La Reina Sofia in Madrid, plus some really cool churches. It was a project!

Oh, and I went back to school to get a Masters degree when I was 63. My book was an expansion of my Master's Thesis "The Artist as a Relational Being."

When you are old, you can be free to do what you want, not what you need to do. That part of my life is over now but I have fond memories and some friends and family will have my book.

I feel mature, except for those silly times that pop up from time to time.

Inside, I'm still 33. Wish my back and feet understood that.

looking for a guy who "lived in the basement of an elderly couple."

He was gone for about 10 minutes before I realized that that elderly couple included ME, and my brother, who lived with us, had his room technically in the basement. I was simultaneously startled at the realization, embarrassed, laughing uproariously, and highly irritated at being thought "elderly" by anyone. That was at least 10 years ago, which would've made me 59 at the time. Even now "elderly" doesn't REALLY describe me, at least not in my mind.

Not only that, but then offensively stereotyped "old" people, and declared him/herself not to be ageist.

When I called them on it, I was told I was the exception.

As someone who is on the far side of 60, planning to work another decade before I retire from paid work, with parents in their late 80s who are just (within the last 5 years) have started to seem elderly - I'd say 80s (but more dependent on state of health/mind).

but I would say at least 10 years older than me

Always the same..

obviously does not consider himself elderly since he's trolling for women age 50-60 on match.com. He probably does consider me elderly at age 66.

Einstein was right.

People over 70 who have adapted to the online era. In your husband's case, well, that's not so exemplary.

(Yes, when I was 21, 31 was elderly."

Im 59 but i feel 100.

I’m just not as young as I used to be.

According to the AP Stylebook 70 is elderly.

I know "elderly" 50 year olds and people in their 90s who are still quite spry.

I would equate being elderly with growing frail or with the onset of dementia.

I say this because I see the term "elderly" as having evolved in our dialog as having new meanings. Just as our communication evolves with other terms that we change as they adopt new meanings through our communication and slang. The term "Retarded" used to be used frequently meaning "less developed", it morphed into slang and was used as a slur. Our language and institutions changed as a result. Changing our socially acceptable language when a term has been overtaken by our collective communication to describe something undesirable, is not a sign of weakness but of intellect and empathy. The right calls it the PC police and attacks it. Civilized Americans accept the change and adapt. Elderly, Senior Citizens, Older Americans as descriptive references have gone through the same evolution.

If Trump were to be repeatedly referred to as the "elderly President", he would likely tweet his anger at being called "elderly" even tho he is of the age that qualifies for retirement benefits, it would help to point out the hypocritical way he attacks using more socially acceptable language with the slur of being "politically correct".

To answer your question, I wouldn't use the term "elderly" to describe an age but rather a circumstance. Someone who is "elderly" may need help with things because their age related conditions have limited their physical or mental abilities.

and nine out of ten times, the same elderly person will choose an analog clock over one of those digital thingies.

but wouldn't that properly be labeled as "old-fashioned"?

-- Batman

Thanks.