# The 'years young' phrase
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 25, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471 "2025-08-25T21:31:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/1 "2025-08-25T21:31:09Z")
I think it should be considered Homicide in the Public Interest to use lethal force to kill any person who uses that phrase.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/2 "2025-08-25T21:44:38Z")
Of the literally millions of provocations deserving a response of Homicide in the Public Interest, you choose this topic? WTF??!?
BLAM. He needed shootin’.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/3 "2025-08-25T21:47:55Z")
Can you use it in a sentence so I can try to appreciate where you are coming from? It seems mostly harmless to me.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/4 "2025-08-25T21:49:31Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> Can you use it in a sentence so I can try to appreciate where you are coming from?
Not the OP, but I hear the term used, mostly in TV reporting, where they mention the age of a senior citizen, usually in a human-interest story. “Mr. John Smith of Tinytown, who’s 97 years young, ran a 5K today,” or, a la Willard Scott on _Today_, “Mrs. Joan Jones of Springfield turns 103 years young today!”
It always comes across to me as twee and a little condescending (otherwise you’d say “they’re xx years **old** ”), but not enough for me to care one way or the other.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/5 "2025-08-25T21:50:06Z")
It’s a lame expression to try to pretend you’re not drawing attention to how old someone is, a la “I’d like you to meet my grandpa, who is 76 years young!” Bleh. But useful to reveal how lame the person speaking is.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/6 "2025-08-25T22:14:06Z")
“Is he five feet, six inches short?”
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/7 "2025-08-25T22:25:08Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Of the literally millions of provocations deserving a response of Homicide in the Public Interest, you choose this topic
Oh, there are many more. Queue jumping, for example. In one of the Heinlein books, I think… Time Enough for Love, perhaps?
But then again, the libertarian idea that ‘armed society is polite society’ is all very well until you consider the outliers of the normal distribution who are basically psychopaths. The gun homicide statistics for the US vs the UK are interesting in this respect…
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/8 "2025-08-25T22:27:59Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> It always comes across to me as twee and a little condescending
Yes, this is the problem with the phrase. (Describing an eight-year-old as “8 years young” might generate some odd looks, but couldn’t be called patronizing.)
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/9 "2025-08-25T22:39:57Z")
Yes, it’s a mildly annoying phrase for that reason. But not one I’d me moved to pit.
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/10 "2025-08-25T22:44:25Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> a mildly annoying phrase
It just grates on my ear. As someone said upthread: it’s so _twee_.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/11 "2025-08-25T23:11:03Z")
Not a fan of the expression but it’s better than “yold” which apparently refers to people 64-75.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/12 "2025-08-25T23:33:43Z")
Hey, I’m 66. I’ll accept “spry”, I’ll accept “grizzled”, but the goddamn truth is I’m _ **old!** _
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/13 "2025-08-25T23:55:12Z")
“Granny, are you spry?”, bad santa.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/14 "2025-08-26T00:08:38Z")
A word that until now I was blissfully unaware of.
BLAM! He needed shootin’.
Along the lines of the OP, I’m not much fond of phrases like “60 is the new 50” or whatever. Yes, I know the idiom pattern came from the title of a TV show. That’s reason enough to hate it.
BLAM! He needed shootin’.
And yes, I’ll posthumously grant the OP’s point that " … years young" is hackneyed, twee, and a leftover from the 1960s well past it’s “bury by” date.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/15 "2025-08-26T00:25:31Z")
Eh, over 2 years ago I pitted people who called my daughter ‘a half’ (as in, entering a restaurant and the host/ess says ‘2 and a half?’, so I’m firmly behind this completely meaningless pitting of a completely innocuous phrase. 😠😡😾
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/16 "2025-08-26T00:45:53Z")
I’m 71, and I’ll let you know when I get old. Hasn’t happened yet, and doesn’t look like it will anytime soon.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/17 "2025-08-26T00:53:03Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#):
>
> I think it should be considered Homicide in the Public Interest to use lethal force to kill any person who uses that phrase
Also calling someone who’s clearly a senior citizen “young lady” or “young man”.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2025, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/18 "2025-08-26T00:56:59Z")
Unless you’re significantly, obviously older than they are. Which, given Doper demographics, is entirely possible. 😉
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/19 "2025-08-26T01:27:57Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Of the literally millions of provocations deserving a response of Homicide in the Public Interest, you choose this topic?
Okay, can we HIPI people who use obscure initialisms? But whet I really came in here to complain about is the phrase “Fur Babies”.
> Oh, we don’t have any children. We don’t need them since we have our Fur Babies. [Turns to husband, who’s not paying attention] Babe, show them the pictures!
And couples that call each other “Babe”… it’s rarely said with real affection. It’s usually some half-concealed version of “Idiot”:
“Babe, you’re not following the directions again… We talked about this, Babe…”
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/20 "2025-08-26T01:29:25Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#):
>
> Hey, I’m 66. I’ll accept “spry”, I’ll accept “grizzled”, but the goddamn truth is I’m _ **old!** _
> [@RTFirefly](#):
>
> I’m 71, and I’ll let you know when I get old. Hasn’t happened yet, and doesn’t look like it will anytime soon.
My mom is 85 now, and is starting to come to grips with the fact that she’ll be getting old pretty soon now. But meanwhile, she still goes on adventures around the globe a couple of times a year, and walks 100,000 steps every week.
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