Oh Grow Up!

Age Words

You may be surprised by how many terms we have for age, but I'm sure you will be surprised by how nuanced they are. For example, we have baby and infant and toddler and pre-school, not to mention various slang words. These don't all mean the same thing. "Toddler" is easy because it applies to something physical—the unsteady walk of the very small child. "Infant" also refers to something physical, though we are most of us no longer aware of its meaning: to be unable to speak. But is an infant the same as a baby?

Consider other age-related terms. In what way is an adolescent different from a youth? from a teenager? Is a grownup different from an adult? Does "guy" imply a particular chronological age? Does it imply anything else, such as level of maturity or social expectations? While we have the word before us, "mature" has multiple meanings, one of which is pretty close to "grownup" but another meaning is a euphemism for elderly.

Try to fix in your mind your own understanding of what the words mean. Now consider how various institutions define childhood or adulthood or old age? Here are just a few:

I'll take the law as one example. You can be tried in court as an adult at eighteen, but sometimes the law can define you as adult at a somewhat earlier age. The military has long considered eighteen as adult, but only since 1972 were we considered adults for purposes of voting; prior to that the age was twenty-one. Which happens to be the legal age for drinking in many states. In short, even in modern society, which tends to be far more standardized than was medieval society, the law renders varying opinions on the subject of adulthood.

Now you can begin to consider the question of age as it applies to six centuries ago. We won't be looking at the entertainment industry or car insurance, but we will be looking particularly at criminal and civil law, at Church law, and at military service.