Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <word-choice><phrase-usage>
Title: "He is 80 years young"
Question: I've seen statements like "He is 80 years young" in many places. Also, I know that it means the same as   He is 80 years old.   Now, why do people use  'young'  instead of  'old'  if it means the same? Or am I entirely misinformed and the statement is actually invalid?

Answers:
sents: text: It's a pun humorous way to tell that you are still young!
text: I myself have used it a couple of times.
text: This simply means that the person is still energetic at that age and feels or appears 'young' .
text: Imagine a conversation: "
text: He is 45 years old.
text: "
text: "Old?
text: Look at his energy; he's 45 years young!"
text: Note that here, old does not mean having wrinkles or being on the verge of contracting diseases associated with senility !
text: The word old here means of a particular age , so don't connect old with aged person (बुज़ुर्ग) when it is accompanied by a number .
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/3187/Maulik V
score: 24
sents: text: Years young 1 : describing how old one is in a humorous manner Example: I will be fifty years young next year.
text: Avoid using it if you are serious.
text: We're all getting older, so it would seem to make more sense to use "years old."
text: Exception: Benjamin Button 2
text: ^
text: He would always say "years younger" 1.
text: dictionary.reference.com 2.
text: Wikipedia
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/20213/Usernew
score: 14
sents: text: This is an illustration of markedness : a cognitive / linguistic phenomenon that is common to many languages, not just English.
text: Some adjective pairs are naturally asymmetrical:
text: Young / old Short / tall Dumb / smart
text: You would normally ask how tall a person is.
text: On the other hand, if you ask "How short are you?", then it feels unusual, and it's no longer a neutral question:
text: it's implying that you think the person is unusually short.
text: Similarly, if you ask "How young are you?", then it implies that you think someone is unexpectedly young.
text: If you say that "He is 80 years young", there is meta-information that the speaker thinks that the subject looks or acts younger than 80 years.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/5289/200_success
score: 12
sents: text: It is a form of flattery.
text: Instead of saying that the guy is old and infirm, the flatterer endeavors to imply that the flatteree is super-young for his age, sprite, full of energy, active, etc.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/27173/Ricky
score: 10
sents: text: The word "old" essentially has two meanings.
text: One is simply a measure of age: How old are you?
text: I am 5 years old.
text: In relative terms, a 5-year-old is considered young whereas an 80-year-old person is much nearer the end of his life
text: and we would speak of him as being "old" in the sense of being elderly.
text: The word has a lot of negative connotations and even teenagers refer to their 40-something parents as "old" in a dismissive, disrespectful way.
text: Using the expression "80 years young" is a way of flipping that around and suggesting that he is still very much vibrant and alive, the opposite of all the dreaded attachments of being "old".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/8026/shawnt00
score: 3
sents: text: Used in a humorous sense.
text: The speaker is trying to make light of age, which can sometimes be a difficult subject to approach.
text: It is used to make an older person feel more at ease with his/her age.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/27590/Amanda
score: 1
sents: text: My 74 year dad used to call himself as "74 years young".
text: He was full of curiosity and energy at 74.
text: So, it is okay to bend the rules of grammar and logic a bit, so long as the meaning comes through.
text: On the other hand, I would hesitate to say he is 80 years young for a stranger, in case the stranger feels I am not acknowledging or respecting his seniority.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/27582/RajuK
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Using the expression "80 years young" is a way of flipping that around and suggesting that he is still very much vibrant and alive, despite all the dreaded attachments of being "old". This can be a form of flattery. It is also a way of  describing how old one is in a humorous manner, as in "I will be fifty years young next year."
This is a form of flattery and can be meant humourously.