ABSTRACT
Language says a lot about what we believe. To call someone “old” is to criticize, to give her or him a bad name. Think of the words substituted for “old”: elderly, senior citizen, golden ager, mature, advanced, distinguished, silver-haired. (There are not as many synonyms for old as for two other conditions we also find difficult to face: “dead” and “drunk” lead the list of words with the most euphemisms.)
