old

think twice before using "old" to describe people: is it relevant? are other words more descriptive? "Old" can be positive, connoting experience (an old pro/hand), but it is used more often as a pejorative intensifier (old bag, old bat, old biddy, old buzzard, old codger, old coot, old duffer, old fogy, old fuddy-duddy, old geezer, old goat, old hat, old witch). Sometimes, those terms are trying to convey non-age-related ideas like eccentric, character, card, odd duck, original, crackpot, oddball, fanatic; stick-in-the-mud, crank. If you need to mention age, however, "old" is preferred to euphemisms. Consider using "older," (an older woman versus an old woman): "Where old expresses an absolute, an arrival at old age, older takes a more relative view of aging as a continuum -- older, but not yet old. As such, older is not just a euphemism for the blunter old but rather a more precise term for someone between middle and advanced age" (American Heritage Book of English Usage). The Older Americans Acts (OAA) chose to use "older." See also ageism, old lady/old man, old maid, oldster, old-timer, old woman.