gerontocracy

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word gerontocracy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word gerontocracy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say gerontocracy in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word gerontocracy you have here. The definition of the word gerontocracy will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofgerontocracy, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From geronto- +‎ -cracy, from Ancient Greek.

Pronunciation

Noun

gerontocracy (countable and uncountable, plural gerontocracies)

  1. Government by elders.
    Antonym: juvenocracy
    • 1972, Harriet Zuckerman, Robert K. Merton, “Age, Aging, and Age Structure in Science”, in Matilda White Riley, Marilyn Johnson, Anne Foner, Aging and Society, volume 3 (A Sociology of Age Stratification), New York, N.Y.: Russell Sage Foundation, →ISBN, page 337:
      It would come as no surprise to find that optimum science policy is apt to be developed neither by gerontocracy nor by juvenocracy but, like the community of scientists itself, by age-diversified meritocracy.
    • 1997 March 9, Paul Krugman, “Does Getting Old Cost Society Too Much?”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      But in his 1996 novel, Holy Fire, [Bruce] Sterling imagines a rather different future: a world ruled by an all-powerful gerontocracy, which appropriates most of the world's wealth to pay for ever more costly life-extension techniques.
    • 2018, Mikiso Hane, Modern Japan: A Historical Survey‎, 5th edition, Routledge, →ISBN:
      He [Koizumi] was what would pass for a political maverick among Japan's faceless gray gerontocracy.

Translations

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia