In our Facebook group, listeners share ways to refer to someone who’s lived a half-century or more: 50-plus, member of the 600 Month Club, 29 plus shipping and handling, the 40th anniversary of my 30th birthday, and Jack Benny-plus. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Ways to Say Your Age”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, a show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
On our Facebook group, Fred Rosen of Boynton Beach, Florida raised an interesting question about the language that people use to talk about their age.
His cousin calls himself 50-plus. He says, I was 50 years old for one day, and now I’m 50-plus. Just one day, I was 50. But people are going to think he’s 59.
Really? If he’s under 51, then he’s cheating himself out of some really good years there.
When you’re a kid, those individual numbers mean a whole lot, right?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, and even the numbers in between. You know, I’m four and a half. I’m five and a half. Yeah, my son counts the months, partly because the birthday is at the end of it, and he knows that gifts are coming.
But yes. Oh, does he? Okay. But then, you know, you get to a certain age, and you just say your regular age, or at least I have, and then you get a little bit older and you sometimes start to fudge it or you forget.
Do you literally forget your own birth? I have to stop and think, well, how old am I?
And a lot of people chimed in on this discussion. Bruce Lundax said, when I turned 50, my friend welcomed me to the 600-month club.
Oh, that sounds depressing. Julie Todd said, I’m 42, but I say I’m 29 plus shipping and handling.
I like that one a lot. That’s great. And Randy Barber said, a friend of mine is currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of her 30th birthday.
So I think that means she’s about 70. Jack Benny did that, right?
Well, that’s funny that you mentioned that because people were saying, I’m Jack Benny plus whatever. 39 plus, yeah. Jack Benny was 39 for something like 30 years.
Oh, is that right? Okay. And it was a long-running joke, yeah.
Do you fudge your age at all? Never. No, the same reason I don’t have a comb over or put plugs on my head. I’m bald. This is me. I’m the age that I am. It is what it is. It is what it is.
Yes. Well, if you have an interesting way to refer to your age, we’d love to hear about it, or we’d love to hear your questions and stories about any aspect of language.
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