I hope that ElderSpeak: A Thesaurus Or Compendium Of Old-Age-Related Words fulfills each of those connotations. The word thesaurus (L, treasury, < G thesaurus storehouse) has three connotations: One, a book of word groups two, a book of specialist vocabulary, i.e., words relating to a particular subject, a glossary and three, a treasury: a place in which valuable things are stored. They span a time frame from the current text-message WOG (wise old guy), to the archaic exclamation, zounds! (a contraction: by God's wounds!) While the venerable Oxford English Dictionary lists some 600,000 words, the French lexis in Larousse is but some 100,000-odd words. Payack of Million-Word March made this millionth-word claim he says it’s only an estimate, but there’s no doubt that the English vocabulary is gigantic. Knowing and keeping up with English words is difficult, as attested by the arrival on June 10, 2009, of our reputed millionth English word: Web 2.0-one not on the tip of many seniors’ tongue. ElderSpeak's words are the antithesis of elderspeak, a recent term for using babytalk, essentially, in communicating with the elderly on the assumption that they are cognitively impaired.ĮlderSpeak fosters gerontiloquence (speaking among those d’un certain agê), and is helpful in translating ideas relating to the elderly into words. PREFACEĮLDERSPEAK: AN OLD-AGE THESAURUS is a compendium of words that are useful to those interested in expanding their vocabulary applicable to the elderly. This book is dedicated to my wife, Liz, and children, Mary, Cathy, Jim, Jr., and Missy, whose company was sometimes forsworn in order to write, and to my elderly friends who are its inspiration. Senior texting codes (STC) (Suggested, Unorthodox, and Un-attributed)Īlphabetical Listing Of Foreign Headwords & Phrases With Their Definition, Etymology, & CategorizationĬategorical List of Headwords & Phrases With Page Number DEDICATION Library of Congress Control Number: 2013916549Īlphabetical Listing of Headwords & Phrases With Their Definition, Etymology, & Categorization The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.Īny people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. IUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:īecause of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Under retirement, youll find ecesis, which is the acclimatization to retirement, and Opagefaengris, a prison for retired male criminals in Singen, Germany.īoost your vocabulary, indulge in a love of language, and improve the way you communicate with seniors and medical professionals. For example, in the end-of-life category, youll find the word feuillemorte, which is the wan, yellow color of death. Listed alphabetically with pronunciation keys, the words are categorized under forty-eight headings. Oligoria: disinterest in former friends or hobbies Lethonomia: a tendency to forget, or inability to recall, names

Here are just a few of the interesting words youll learn:Ĭenotaph: a monument erected as a memorial to a dead person or dead people buried elsewhere, especially those killed fighting a war

All of them apply to the aged, a group that makes up an increasing portion of the populationparticularly in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Most of these words are unusual, rare, obsolete, archaic, wonderful, marvelous, arcane, and even preposterous. There are many words relating to old age, aging, and the elderly, and this compendium of words seeks to help you understand almost two thousand of them.

Compendium synonym