# 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:** 3
### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/41 "2025-08-27T00:34:05Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> Ask yourself how old you’d be
> If you didn’t know the day you were born
I know the day I was born, and my current age, and it’s just a number. I’m a PhD mathematician and had a long career as a government statistician, and if any silly number thinks it’s gonna boss me around, it’s got another think coming.
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### Author:  [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/42 "2025-08-27T01:01:44Z")
> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> Also calling someone who’s clearly a senior citizen “young lady” or “young man”.
That always makes me think of exactly one thing:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-zxkoCvlJ8)
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### Author:  [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/43 "2025-09-01T12:45:03Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#):
>
> and if any silly number thinks it’s gonna boss me around, it’s got another think coming.
Love this!
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/44 "2025-09-01T13:19:53Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> Eh, my description was incomplete. As @outlierrn noted, they were calling her half a person, which I found objectionable. There are three of us needing to be sat, not two and a half.
On the one hand, the restaurant does need some terminology for that, because while all of you need to be sat, you don’t all need to be sat in the same way.
On the other hand, I don’t think that “half” is the right terminology to use, because what if you’d had twins? Would two parents and two babies be “three”? Plus, the seating for the baby might actually take up more space than an adult, because you need a high chair protruding out into the aisle at the end of a booth.
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### Author:  [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/45 "2025-09-07T21:51:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> On the other hand, I don’t think that “half” is the right terminology to use, because what if you’d had twins? Would two parents and two babies be “three”? Plus, the seating for the baby might actually take up more space than an adult, because you need a high chair protruding out into the aisle at the end of a booth.
Perhaps it could be two and two halves.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/46 "2025-09-08T04:15:59Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> As @outlierrn noted, they were calling her half a person, which I found objectionable. There are three of us needing to be sat, not two and a half.
I have never heard of that usage and googling has not turned up anything.
Did this happen frequently and at more than one restaurant?
Has that happened to anyone else here?
I asked some relatives in the States and no one has heard of it.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/47 "2025-09-08T04:24:10Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#):
>
> I have never heard of that usage and googling has not turned up anything.
I haven’t, either; my guess would be that the restaurant employee(s) whom @JohnT encountered were trying to be cute/funny, but it seems to be an isolated (or, at least, uncommon) usage.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/48 "2025-09-08T05:26:55Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#):
>
> I have never heard of that usage and googling has not turned up anything.
What about:
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> There was a popular long running sit-com that used it.
(The TV series “Two and a Half Men”, of course.)
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/49 "2025-09-08T06:17:09Z")
Ok, I missed that.
I’ve only seen clips of that show on YouTube shorts so I wasn’t familiar with it.
So, it was someone trying to get a laugh by repeating a joke(?) that would be familiar to a lot of people.
The thing I hate is when people repeat stupid jokes / expressions and then expect you to laugh at them like they were something original they just thought of.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/50 "2025-09-08T08:52:17Z")
The TV show _Two and a Half Men_ premiered September 2003. My pit thread complaining about this dated from May 2002. Just FYI.
> [@"Excuse me miss, but my baby is NOT a 'half'."](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-miss-but-my-baby-is-not-a-half/108675):
>
> Believe it or not, she is an honest-to-God “whole” person! Yes, she is small. Yes, she sits in a car seat or a high chair, depending upon what her mother wants. But here’s the thing: she is a whole person. So when I come approach you in the middle of your shift as hostessing the local bar and grill to tell you that we need a non-smoking table for three, I don’t want to hear some stupid-ass crack as: “You mean a table for two and a half?” No, you stupid bint, I MEAN a TABLE for THREE. 3! 4-1! 1+…
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/51 "2025-09-08T13:31:27Z")
I’m sure I’ve used it to refer to one of my kids. I feel I’ve heard it before. ETA: ah, yes, the sitcom.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/52 "2025-09-08T13:55:41Z")
Plus of course the never-ending stories about how the average American family has 2.5 or 2.1 or whatever fractional number of kids.
All of which tends towards counting kids as partial people. Which of course they are not really.
I was never a parent, so I don’t know how I’d react to somebody using the half-a-person line for _my_ precious child.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/53 "2025-09-08T14:47:58Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Plus of course the never-ending stories about how the average American family has 2.5 or 2.1 or whatever fractional number of kids.
As seen in _The Phantom Tollbooth_:
> “Pardon me for staring,” said Milo, after he had been staring for some time, “but I’ve never seen half a child before.”
>
> “It’s .58 to be precise,” replied the child from the left side of his mouth (which happened to be the only side of his mouth).
>
> “I beg your pardon?” said Milo.
>
> “It’s .58,” he repeated; “it’s a little bit _more_ than a half.”
>
> “Have you always been that way?” asked Milo impatiently, for he felt that that was a needlessly fine distinction.
>
> “My goodness, no,” the child assured him. “A few years ago I was just .42 and, believe me, that was terribly inconvenient.”
>
> “What is the rest of your family like?” said Milo, this time a bit more sympathetically.
>
> “Oh, we’re just the average family,” he said thoughtfully; “mother, father, and 2.58 children—and, as I explained, I’m the .58.”
(I’ve long suspected the line about .42 being “terribly inconvenient” was a joke that slipped past the censors…)
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/54 "2025-09-08T17:47:04Z")
Well it certainly slipped past me. What’s the joke?
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/55 "2025-09-08T17:53:17Z")
Considering the axis along which the boy is divided in half, certain…vital parts…might be sorely missed if that fraction were just slightly reduced.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/56 "2025-09-08T22:23:48Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> I was never a parent, so I don’t know how I’d react to somebody using the half-a-person line for _my_ precious child.
I’m a parent and I’d just roll my eyes, at most.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/57 "2025-09-08T22:36:45Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#):
>
> I have never heard of that usage and googling has not turned up anything.
I can say I have, and in the context described. If people are making reservations for dinner, they might describe a child as a “half” (and for the reasons mentioned; they’ll need a booster seat or high chair, not a regular seat). It wouldn’t apply to fine dining establishments, but I’m sure I’ve heard it used as nomenclature at family type restaurants.
You could say “2 and a child” instead of “2 and a half”, but they both mean the same. It never occurred to me to be offended by it.
(Now, if somebody described a family with a kid as 2 and a half in some other context where the kid _doesn’t_ need a different accommodation, then I would find it dismissive and rude).
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/58 "2025-09-09T01:08:27Z")
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> I can say I have, and in the context described. I
Interesting! It’s fascinating how much language has changed in the 35 years since I lived in the States. I tell my students that I can only teach them slang their grandparents would have known if they lived in America.
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### Author:  [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/59 "2025-09-13T02:39:41Z")
I first encountered the “years young” phrase when one of the Chicago papers called Casey Stengel “83 years young” on his birthday (or maybe the day after), so I guess you can see I am of a certain youth. I thought it a bit silly the other day to read someone or other was eighty-odd years young on the occasion of his death.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-years-young-phrase/1022471/60 "2025-09-13T10:15:28Z")
Of course part of the “years young” idiom is the connotation that this person is of (comparatively) youthful attitude and condition despite their years. Not surrendering gracefully; no not them.
We all know a 50yo fogey; there’s a couple on here. We also know, or know of, 80-somethings who’re kickin’ ass on life all day every day. These latters are the ones who _deserve_ the “years young” appellation. Or maybe a different idiom, but they are a rare and special breed and deserve some term of their own.
Looking around my peers in this town of retirees, I’m in well above average but not extreme outlier shape and attitude for my age. My line is: “I’m actually only 30; I’m just _real_ high mileage.” Which seems to carry the point.
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