Talk:years young

RFV discussion: October 2016–May 2017
Tagged, not listed. Equinox ◑ 08:07, 15 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I think it should be an idiom, and easy enough to verify. DonnanZ (talk) 08:55, 15 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Clear widespread use? I don't think it's a noun but that's not an RFV issue. Renard Migrant (talk) 11:08, 15 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Move to RFD? I thought we previously removed this sense from young, but maybe it was just a TR discussion. Equinox ◑ 11:11, 15 October 2016 (UTC)'


 * years young gets plenty of google books results https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=%22years+young%22 it's used as a euphemism for saying "years old" in order to avoid saying the word "old". 99.101.56.68 17:03, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Shouldn't it be at ? The euphemism is not on the entire phrase, but on young as meaning "old". In fact, trying to determine a correct POS for this evinces the fact that it's not a valid phrase in and of itself. When one says "He is 85 years young", it's correct to segment this as "He is 85 years" + "young", and not "He is 85" + "years young"...I mean, we don't have an entry for  do we ?Leasnam (talk) 17:15, 4 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Clearly citable, so RFV passed. I have sent it to RFD. —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 20:25, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

RFD discussion: May–August 2017
Idiomatic or an SOP joke? —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 20:25, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
 * I believe it's a play on the word young, meaning "old". One is [x years] + [young/old]; not [x] + [years young/old]. delete per nom, and put a new sense at which states can mean "old" euphemistically Leasnam (talk) 20:51, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
 * If someone is called 70 years young, it could be a euphemism or flattery or it could be that the person is being simply described as young ("as if young, youthful") for their age. DCDuring (talk) 01:07, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Good point. So "[70 years] [young]" would essentially mean "[70 years] [of age]" but would connote "[70 years] [of (youthful) age] ? Leasnam (talk) 03:56, 13 May 2017 (UTC)
 * This seems supported by how the phrase seems to have evolved in the first place, for if we trace x years old (and incidentally its mutated offspring x years young, which is just the same phrase with a twist), we find Middle English x yeres of eld(e) ("x years of age") and finally our x years old. So the old and hence the young refer to "age" Leasnam (talk) 04:14, 13 May 2017 (UTC)


 * It's not a joke entry, just a humorous phrase. See . It's like saying "he was 5 feet short" instead of "tall": it comically draws attention to failed expectations or what not. I'm not sure that dictionary entries are the best way to cover this sort of language feature. Equinox ◑ 04:03, 13 May 2017 (UTC)


 * I don't know if we need to expand young to address this or if the entry already addresses this adequately simply by defining "young", but delete "years young" because it's just [years] [young], not [years young], like "5 feet tall" or "5 feet short" are not using *"feet tall" or *"feet short". I can find babies referred to as "n months young", btw. - -sche (discuss) 03:16, 15 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Delete. Possibly also redirect to young, if there is an appropriate specific sense. I'm not sure that young is unique, but it may well be an example of a rare phenomenon in English, which would make a definition that captured the phenmenon lexical material. DCDuring (talk) 16:06, 15 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Keep: Largely on the basis that "young" meaning "old" is indeed a joke (though a widespread one), and also that it doesn't have much use beyond years young. Since there is no corresponding definition for young, SOP cannot be invoked. Pur ple back pack 89   16:10, 15 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep, and expand to note that it is usually used to indicate that a person of advanced age is more active or youthful than their age alone would suggest. bd2412 T 17:07, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep. DonnanZ (talk) 02:13, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Delete, per above. It's just irony Leasnam (talk) 02:15, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep per bd2412. Andrew Sheedy (talk) 04:47, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep It is an ironic phrase which is not sum of parts. John Cross (talk) 05:02, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Leaning towards keep, per 's comment. It wouldn't be terrible if an appropriate sense of young were added and years young redirected to it, but it would be odd unless there are other fixed phrases in which this sense of young is used. I don't like that years young is a fragment of a phrase such as 70 years young, but as of yet there is no way to indicate an unspecified number in an entry name as there is for pronouns (on one's own account), so the entry name has to be a fragment. — Eru·tuon 05:40, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Isn't the sense of "young" used here the usual sense of "young", i.e. already present in the entry, selected to flip the ? Compare "18 months young" (instead of "18 months old"), "eight feet narrow" (instead of "eight feet wide"), or The Complete McAuslan, page 227, "If he had been eight feet tall, or three feet short, I'd have thought the same thing – simply, that he would have looked out of place in a Highland regimental pipe-band." - -sche (discuss) 19:15, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Which sense of young are you referring to? "Born not long ago", "having qualities of a young person", "belonging to the earlier part of life", "inexperienced"? Those don't really lend themselves to being qualified by "some number of years". For instance, "70 years born not long ago" doesn't make sense. There really needs to be another sense, or at least a subsense. Could you explain what you mean by markedness? I'm familiar with it as a general linguistic concept, but I don't quite understand how it applies here. — Eru·tuon 19:26, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
 * What I mean by markedness is that the usual phrase is "X years old" or "how old are you", or "X feet tall", because "old" and "tall" are unmarked... but one could intentionally used the marked words, "X years young" or "how young are you" or "X feet short", to suggest (seriously or humorously) that instead of being advanced in age or height, someone is not advanced in age or height. - -sche (discuss) 20:09, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Delete. Ƿidsiþ 12:47, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Delete. --WikiTiki89 19:52, 12 June 2017 (UTC)


 * FWIW, I have created decades young, which should have as much or as little claim to being separate from young as years young. - -sche (discuss) 20:09, 12 June 2017 (UTC)


 * RFD kept per no consensus for deletion: 5.5:6 (keep:delete). --Dan Polansky (talk) 16:52, 6 August 2017 (UTC)