Ninetysomething

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person whose age falls within the range of ninety to ninety-nine An individual who is classified as being in their nineties Someone belonging to the demographic of those aged ninety to ninety-nine years
2. An individual whose age is between ninety and ninety-nine years
3. Someone whose age is in the nineties, specifically from ninety to ninety-nine years old

Etymology: "Ninetysomething" is a simple compound: "ninety" followed by "-something," a pattern English has used for decades to mean a person of roughly a given age. The suffix works the same way as in "twentysomething" and "thirtysomething," and the pairing is what makes it readable at a glance: a ninetysomething is someone in their nineties, somewhere between ninety and ninety-nine. The "-something" element comes from the older use of "something" as a noun meaning a somewhat indefinite quantity or degree, as in "he is something of a poet." Attaching it to an age numeral gives a vague, approximate sense, the speaker signalling that the exact age does not matter, only the decade.