This is just one of those little shocks as you go along.
Your first grey hair.
Your first subscription offer from AARP.
Your first offer of a senior discount at Denny’s.
Yesterday, I had a mammogram. The technician asked me when I completed menopause. “Uhh, still going through it?” I answered and my vanity pinged as the technician looked surprised. We agreed that in August I would be done with all of that nonsense. I can’t imagine my disappointment if I’m not.
As the OP, I’ve found all your answers to be interesting. It’s been mentioned that the word “elderly” evokes an image of a frail, sickly person, probably using a cane. It does with me. I’ve had some health issues in the last year or so, but I’m hardly frail or sickly, and were I referred to as elderly, I would be somewhat offended, though I’d probably laugh about it.
My moniker is “XOldiesJock.” In my 48-year career in radio, I worked for two stations that had “Oldies” formats, centering on the music of the 60s and early 70s. This was only 10 years ago. Have you noticed that there are no longer any stations, at least on FM, that play any pre-70s music? Now they focus on mid-70s and mostly 80s. And they are called “Classic Hits,” not “Oldies.” The reason the Oldies format disappeared, and quickly, is because the people listening to it were all over 50 and were no longer a desireable demo for advertisers. (Stuck in their ways; always buy the same brands; skeptical of advertising.) And people today who do listen to music of the 70s and 80s do not want to be listening to “Oldies” because of the “old” connotation. And none of them will ever want to be called “elderly.”
I would say 20 years -------- and stay off my lawn you whippersnapper or I’ll shake my cane at you again! 
Exactly. Denzel Washington is not elderly, but he is 64. Pierce Brosnan, also 64, not. Bruce Springsteen 68, not elderly. OTOH I’ve met plenty of elderly 59 year olds.
Too many of you define “elderly” as “whatever the fuck it is, I ain’t there yet”.
You’re setting yourself up for future-failure. You’re defining “elderly” as “too goddam old and should be dead and soon will be” or something of that ilk. And make no mistake, unless you die before you get old, you’ll get old.
Old should be a good thing, like any other age. Have you not known and admired some 86 year olds, some 91 year olds, maybe a rare 98 year old person? If not, go find one. Seriously. Plan on who, and how, you intend to be when you are 86, 93, etc. Plan it as a way of being a person you’d enjoy being. If you don’t cast your eyes down the road, you can’t drive there, basic navigation. Me, I’m gonna be a seriously formidable ancient wise person. I’m planning to live until I’m 110. (If I get there and I feel decently OK I may re-up and shoot for the Guinness Book of Records, what the hell).
I’m lucky; no male in my family has ever made it past 75 and most of us are dead by 70. So going by my standard (currently 81) for old is a pretty safe bet I’ll never reach. But a lot is our culture; we don’t respect age and equate it with wisdom – we are more youth and vitality. So while I respect your position I don’t know that I join you in it for an assortment of reasons.
Anyone over age 71. Next year, that will change to anyone over 72.
Imho 65 because that’s when you’re kicked to the curb and get social security & medicare. The assisted living centers put you on their mailing list.
Yikes that’s less than a decade away for me. I got on AARP’s mailing list at 55.
Some states define senior citizen at 60 and others 65.
https://elder.findlaw.com/elder-abuse/elder-abuse-overview.html
Regardless of the legal definition.
Age is just a number. I try to challenge myself and stay engaged in life.
Recently started piano lessons. It’s definitely challenging my memory and stiff hands.
I finally relented and bought a smartphone. Learned Android and installed Apps.
It’s when you’re given a senior discount without it being offered.
I’d say it’s when your doc hands you a DNR form to fill out at your annual “preventive” visit.
Personally, that’s the very last thing I intend to think about.
Elderly people are constantly telling my mom that they wish they were still her age. They invariably turn out to be younger than her.
There’s definitely a shift in behavior that marks the transition from merely old to actually “elderly”. In my experience, it’s something that happens to people in their mid 70s, and is generally when they go from being more or less normal in terms of activity levels and socialization to having significant physical limitations and acting “elderly”- they quit going and doing stuff in general, and they start to be defined by declining health.
I mean, my grandparents were pretty active and normal in their 60s, and in large part, so were my parents and in-laws. But when all of them hit somewhere around 74, they all went to being “old”. I think it has to do with when their physical limitations become serious enough to warrant lifestyle changes- they go from being people who are occasionally limited by their physical condition, to people who are defined by their limitations.
That, I think is the inflection point for “older” vs. “elderly”. Of course this will differ depending on the people involved and their issues- some hit it in their early 70s, some in their 60s, and some in their late 70s/early 80s.
I don’t think it’s an age as much as it is a state of being. Some 75 year olds are more active and youthful than some 50 year olds. All depends on the condition the person is.
Interestingly, “elderly” has undergone a semantic shift in the past several decades: it originally meant something more like “middle-aged”, i.e., not young but not definitely old. You weren’t actually an elder yet, you were elder-ly.
E.g., in this 1909 description of Manet’s portrait of his mother, referring to the sitter as “elderly but not yet old”. (That’s this painting, btw: how old do you think the sitter looks?)
I started playing cello on my 70th birthday. Also got married that day.
Considering that painting is from 1909 I would guess she is in her mid 50s, although if this was someone from 2019 I would say she is in her early to mid 60s.
As far as when elderly starts, I’d say 80 is my arbitrary cutoff. That seems to be the age at which most people seem to no longer be able to bounce back after a major illness despite optimal care and receiving therapy.
If indeed we are using that definition, then no. If “old” is always “my current age plus something” then we always die before we get “old.”
We can get academic here, and out of IMHO range. Academically it gets divided up into the “young old” 65-74, the “old” 74-84, and the “oldest old” 85+.
Once upon a time a smaller fraction of the population was over 65. But now those just hitting 65 has a big cohort of Boomers … and those before the Boomers, around to compare with. Some still have living parents to contrast with. They see people running for president in their later 70s
This was not the referent groups those hitting 65 used to have. I think having lots of folks older than you functioning with high energy impacts whether of not you think you are yet “old.”
But yes what age is “old” depends on the age of the person being asked.
Now that I’m pushing 60, I will go so far as to say that I’m standing on Old’s front porch, but I’m not planning to ring the doorbell anytime soon. It’s a lovely winter’s evening out, and they probably won’t let me smoke in there anyway.