Octonarians

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. People who are in their eighties years of age; individuals belonging to the age group from eighty to eighty-nine years
2. Members of the population who have reached and live within the decade marking seventieth to ninetieth year of life; octogenarians as a demographic category
3. Aging persons who have completed at least eighty years but not yet ninety; senior citizens within this specific age bracket

Etymology: Octonarians is simply the plural of "octonarian," a noun for a person aged between 80 and 89. It is built from the Latin "octoginta," meaning eighty, which gives us "octogenarian" for the same age group. The form "octonarian" is an older, less common variant that follows the pattern of words like "nonagenarian" for the nineties, with the Latin "octonarius," meaning "consisting of eight," supplying the ending. English has long preferred "octogenarian," so "octonarian" appears mostly in dictionaries and occasional writing, where it is often treated as an alternative rather than the standard form.

Synonyms: octogenarians, elderly people in their eighties

Antonyms: youngsters, children, teenagers, youths, adolescents