Quinquagenarian

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌkwɪŋkwəd͡ʒəˈnɛɹiən/

Definitions

1. A person who is between 50 and 59 years old
2. An individual who falls within the age range of 50 to 59 years old is referred to in this category
3. This term describes someone whose age is between 50 and 59 years, indicating a specific stage of adulthood

Etymology: A quinquagenarian is, quite literally, a person "containing 50," since the Latin "quinquāgēnārius" was built from "quīnquāgintā," meaning "fifty." The Romans used the root for counting in units of ten: "quīnquāgintā" is a fused form of "quīnque" (five) and "decem"-style tens, so it names five tens. The adjective "quinquagenary," meaning "consisting of fifty," shares the same root and was the older, more mathematical sibling of the term. The noun reached English by two routes that the source records: directly from Latin "quinquāgēnārius," or through French "quinquagénaire," which was itself built from Latin "quīnquāgēnus" ("50 each") with the suffix "-ārius" ("-ary"). Either way, the English suffix "-an" was attached to make a word for a person of a certain age, a pattern shared with "septuagenarian" for those in their seventies and "octogenarian" for those in their eighties. The word is a neat example of how a counting term became a way of describing a stage of life.

Synonyms: fifty-year-old, middle-aged

Antonyms: youth, teenager