middle-aged

English

Alternative forms

• middleaged
• middle aged, middle-ag’d (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmɪdl̩ˈeɪd͡ʒd/, /ˈmɪdl̩ˌeɪd͡ʒd/

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Adjective

middle-aged (comparative more middle-aged, superlative most middle-aged)

1. (not comparable) Of or relating to middle age; neither old nor young.
   • 1676, Rigaud, quoting Collins, Corr. Sci. Men, volume II, published 1841, page 453:

     The admirable M. Leibnitz, a German, but a member of the Royal Society, scarce yet middle aged.

   • 1709, Steele, Tatler, № 77, ¶ 2:

     When I was a middle-aged Man.

   • 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:

     If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot — say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance — literally to astonish his son’s weak mind.

   • 1880, G. Meredith, Tragic Com., published 1881, page 81:

     A middle-aged, grave and honourable man.

   1. (comparable) Characteristic of middle-aged people.
      • 1886, Lowell, Gray, in Latest Lit. Ess., published 1891, page 2:

        Cowper was really mad at intervals, but his poetry, admirable as it is in its own middle-aged way, is in need of anything rather than a strait-waistcoat.

      • 1887, Ruskin, Præterita, volume II, page 269:

        His already almost middle-aged aspect of serene sagacity.

2. (obsolete, not comparable) Belonging to the Middle Ages; medieval.
   • 1710, Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), volume III, page 49:

     The reading and perusing of middle-ag’d Antiquities.

   • 1804, Mitford, Inquiry, page 318:

     Of the modern and middle-aged Greek.

   • 1845, Proc. Philol. Soc., volume II, page 145:

     The English hunger bears a strong resemblance to the Spanish hambre, formed from the middle-aged Latin famina.

Translations

Further reading

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Middle-aged, a.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volumes VI, Part 2 (M–N), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 421, column 2.