Fiftyish

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Being somewhere near the age of fifty, typically between about forty-five and fifty-five years old ; approximately fifty in quantity, number or amount
2. Appearing or estimated to be close to fifty years of age ; amounting to roughly fifty in count or measure
3. Of an age in the vicinity of fifty years ; loosely meaning about fifty when describing a number or quantity

Etymology: "Fiftyish" is a plain formation: the number "fifty" with the suffix "-ish", which English attaches to nouns and numerals to mean "roughly" or "somewhat like." The number itself goes back to Old English "fīftiġ," built from "fīf" (five) and "tiġ" (ten, from a Germanic word for a set of ten), with the same root tracing back to the ancient Indo-European word for five, linked to the idea of a hand. The suffix has a longer pedigree than the number. "-ish" descends from an Old English ending "-isċ," meaning "belonging to" or "of the nature of" a people or thing, as in "English" or "Danish." Over time the sense loosened from national or ethnic belonging into a general sense of resemblance, so that "greenish" means "somewhat green" and "fiftyish" means "somewhere around fifty years of age."