also 4–6 aege, 5 eage, 5–6 aage, 6 aige. [a. OFr. aäge, eäge, (11th c.) edage (Pr. atge):—late L. *ætāticum (analogous to umbrāticum, viāticum, volāticum, etc.), f. ætāt-em age, contr. from ævi-tātem, n. of quality f. ævum an age. The OFr. word was of 3 syllables, but in the earliest recorded instances in Eng. it was already reduced to 2; Caxton’s eage, aage being later attempts to restore the Fr. spelling. The mod.Fr. âge and Eng. age retain only the (lengthened) termination of the OFr. ed-age, e-age. See -AGE.]
I. A period of existence.
1. The time that any animal or vegetable has lived; the length of time that anything has existed in its present form or state; length of existence.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. Poems, A 412. I watȝ ful ȝong & tender of age.
c. 1384. Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 1986. In al myn age Ne saugh y suche an hous as this.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 92. The said Alexander began to regne in the xviij yer of his eage.
1559. Myrroure for Mag., Dk. York, xi. 3. Prudent for their age.
1611. Bible, Mark v. 42. Shee was of the age of twelue yeeres.
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl., II. xi. (1675), 133. Those, who are of the same age with me.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The age of a hart, etc., is chiefly judged of by the furniture of his head.
1831. Census Quest., in Penny Cycl., VI. 414/1. How many persons (including children of whatever age) are there actually found within the limits of your parish?
b. Moon’s age: number of days since the occurrence of the new moon. So day’s age, year’s age, etc.
1636. Massinger, Bashf. Lover, IV. i. Of what age is the day?
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Moon, To find the Moon’s age:—To the day of the month add the epact of the year, and the months from March inclusive. The sum, if under 30—if over, the excess—is the moon’s age.
2. The whole duration of the life or existence of any being or thing; the ordinary duration of life.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxxix. 10. The dayes of oure age iij score yeares and ten.
1611. Bible, Gen. xlvii. 28. The whole age of Iacob was an hundred fourtie and seuen yeeres.
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., V. i. 1811. Shortens her Father’s Age, and cuts him off.
1853. Encycl. Brit., I. 233. The age of man has greatly diminished from his first creation. Ibid., 234. Of the ages of the lower animals little is known.
3. Such duration of life as ordinarily brings body and mind to full development; years of maturity or discretion, or what by law or custom are fixed as such. Full age, in Eng. Law, 21 years; hence the expressions of (at, to obs.) age, under (within obs.) age, nonage. Age of discretion, 14 years.
1382. Wyclif, John ix. 21. Axe ye him, he hath age, speke he of himsilf.
c. 1430. Syr Tryamoure, 690. Or justyng canste thou ryght noght, For thou art not of age.
1509. Fisher, Wks., 38. Till they come to aege in the ungracyous custome of synne.
1528. Perkins, Profit. Bk., v. § 327 (1642), 144. If I dye, my heire within age.
1721. Cibber, Rival Fools, I. i. (1754), II. 1. Sir, I’m no Boy, I have been at Age this Half-year.
1788. Johnson, Lett., I. cxxviii. 278. To hinder my dear Harry from mischief when he comes to age.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., II. E 1/1. Nor can any lord of parliament sit there, until he be of the full age of twenty-one years. Ibid., Nonage, in general understanding, is all the time of a person’s being under the age of 21.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Demerara, i. 4. The freedom which is so precious to young people when they reach what appears to them the age of discretion.
Mod. When did he come of age?
4. Hence, Any particular length of life which naturally or conventionally qualifies for anything. (Usually with over (past arch.), under.)
c. 1315. Shoreham, 63. Of ham that scholde y-wedded be Her the age thou myȝt lerne.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. xi. 11. Sare bareyn took vertu into conseyuing of seed, ȝhe, bi sydis, or withoute [1388 aȝen] the tyme of age.
1526. Tindale, ibid. When she was past age. [So in Genev., 1611, and Revised.]
Mod. This is the candidate’s last chance; in another year he will be over age. There is no limitation of age for this prize.
5. A naturally distinct portion of the existence of a man or other being; a period or stage of life.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of Armes, I. ix. 22. In tyme to come of theyre flowryng aage.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), C ij b. The fearefulle dedes and enterpryses doone by Caius Jul. Cesar in his yonge age.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 143. One man in his time playes many parts, His Acts being seuen ages. Ibid. (1602), Haml., III. iv. 68. At your age The hey-day in the blood is tame. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., IV. iv. 108. They are giuen To men of middle age.
1736. Bailey (Fol.), s.v. The Life of Man is divided into four different Ages, Infancy, Youth, Manhood, Old Age.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The Age of puberty commences at 14, and ends at about 25.
c. 1815. Wordsworth, To Yng. Lady. An old age serene and bright, And lovely as a Lapland night.
6. esp. The latter part of life, when the physical effects of protracted existence become apparent; old age.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 114. A gode clerk wele in age.
1380. Sir Ferumb., 3481. Y am sumdel stryken in age.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xxvii. (1495), 788. Houndes in aege haue the Podagre.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XI. xxxvi. Who in youth lyst nothyng to lerne, He wyl repent hym often in hys age.
1599. Shaks., Pass. Pilgr., xii. Crabbed age and youth cannot live together. Ibid. (1602), Ham., V. i. 79. Age with his stealing steps, Hath caught [v.r. claw’d] me in his clutch.
a. 1631. Donne, Sat., iii. Age, death’s twilight.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. xii. 217. Many grow old before they arrive at age.
1718. Pope, Iliad, I. 96. Thus spoke the prudence and the fears of age.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 100. A youth of labour with an age of ease.
1842. Tennyson, Grandm., xxv. Age is a time of peace, So it be free from pain.
1858. Sears, Athan., xiv. 122. The moroseness and pcevishness of age.
7. Hence, The physical effects or qualities themselves; oldness, senility. Of things: Maturity.
c. 1460. Cov. Myst., 139. Hese leggys here do folde for age.
1509. Fisher, Wks., 294. For aege and febleness.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. v. 37. When the age is in, the wit is out.
1611. Bible, Ecclus. xxx. 24. Carefulnesse bringeth age before the time.
1859. J. Lang, Wander. India, 383. Bring several bottles of our Madeira, for theirs I do not like … It has not age.
1877. L. Morris, Hades, I. 50. The failing ear and eye, the slower limbs, Whose briefer name is Age.
II. A period of time.
8. The period of time contemporary with the lifetime of any one; the generation of men to which any one belongs. (Used in fixing a date, but not as a measure.)
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 61. Malcolm mad homage tille Edward our kyng, Þat he and alle his age of Ingland sald hold þat þing.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), Mark xiii. 30. This age shal not passe, tyl all these thynges be done.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 5. S. Hierome … the best linguist without controuersie, of his age.
c. 1735. Pope, Donne Sat., iv. 2. Adieu to all the follies of the age.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 183. What, in our age, would be called gross perfidy and corruption.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xi. 72. A dabbler in arts and sciences beyond his age.
9. A lifetime taken as a measure of time; a generation.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxliv. 13. & thy dominion endureth thorow out all ages.
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, III. xxxiii. 203. The Writers of the New Testament lived all in lesse then an age after Christ’s Ascension.
1718. Free-thinker, No. 19. 128. A Duke is … not to be seen in a Countrey-Church above once in an Age.
1853. Encycl. Brit., II. 233. Nestor is said to have lived three ages when he was ninety years old.
10. A long but indefinite space of time, marked by the succession of men.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, Prol. 6. Off aunters ben olde of aunsetris nobill, And slydyn vppon shlepe by slomeryng of Age.
1590. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., I. i. 6. Unhappy Persia, that in former age Hast been the seat of mighty Conquerors.
1611. Bible, Eph. iii. 5. Which in other ages was not made knowen vnto the sonnes of men.
1654. Chapman, Alphonsus, Pl. (1873), III. 212.
| O! I shall never see my Father more, | |
| H’as tane his leaue of me for age and age. |
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. i. 39. But one dread year Hath done the work of ages.
1860. Tennyson, Locksley, 137. Yet I doubt not thro’ the ages one increasing purpose runs.
b. often loosely in exaggeration.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 33. To weare away this long age of three houres.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, I. xlvii. (1677), 75. In the dead age of night.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Lett., Wks. 1730, I. 178. This very minute seems an age.
1813. Miss Austen, Pride & Prej., xvii. 76. The two ladies were delighted to see their dear friend again, called it an age since they had met.
c. occas. used for, A century. (Cf. Fr. siècle.)
1594. Blundeville, Exerc., III. I. xxxvi. (ed. 7), 352. The space of an hundred yeeres, called in Latine seculum, and in English an age.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., III. (1636), 11. The end of the tenth, and beginning of the eleventh Age, after the incarnation.
1749. Wesley, Wks., 1872, X. 43. For they [Jerome ard Hilarion] did not live within the first three ages.
1848. Lowell, Fable, Poet. Wks. 1879, 149/2. Be true to yourselves and this new nineteenth age.
11. Hist. Any great period or portion of human history distinguished by certain characters real or mythical, as the Golden Age, the Patriarchal Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of the Reformation, the Middle Ages, the Prehistoric Age.
1297. R. Glouc., 9. Of þe world … þe firste age & tyme was from oure firste fader Adam to Noe.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, II. 1948. Or Weris, said he the gret outtrage Began in to the secunde aige.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. i. 168. I vvould vvith such perfection gouerne Sir, T’Excel the Golden Age.
1697. Dryden, Virgil, Past., iv. 5. The last great Age, foretold by sacred Rhymes.
1736. Bailey (Fol.), The Generality of Chronologers agree in making seven Ages [of the World] or Periods.
1818. Hallam (title), A View of the state of Europe during the Middle Ages.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., 193. The Stone Age falls into two divisions, the Unground Stone Age, and the Ground Stone Age.
12. Geol. A great period or stage of the history of the Earth, distinguished by its leading physical features; an æon.
1855. Kingsley, Glaucus (1878), 25. The Ice Age or Glacial Epoch.
1857. H. Miller, Test. Rocks, i. 53. In the Oolitic ages insects become greatly more numerous.
III. Comb., in which age stands in objective relation to a pr. pple., as age-adorning, -dispelling; or in instrumental relation to a pa. pple., as age-cracked, -despoiled, -enfeebled, -honored, peeled, -stricken, -worn, etc.; or in limiting relation to a pple. or adj., as age-coeval, -lasting, AGE-LONG, q.v. Also ageman obs., an old man; AGELESS, AGE-MATE, AGE-PRIER, q.v.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 378. A beldame’s age-cracked voice.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xxvii. (1848), 325. Age-peeled pinnacles.
1815. Scott, Ld. of Isles, I. Introd. Some age-struck wanderer gleans few ears of scatter’d grain.
1851. Hawthorne, Twice-told T., II. xix. 267. So age-worn and woful are they. Ibid. (1846), Mosses, I. vii. 163. Lifelong and age-coeval associations.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xxxii. (1848), 352. Between eternity and time a lapse … age-lasting.
1570–1. in Eccl. Proc. Durham (Surt. Soc.), 225. Wm. Walker is an aidgeman and broken in labour.
