The view from 60

6 comments August 30th, 2008

About a week ago I celebrated my 60th birthday, which makes me a “sexagenarian,” a term that will apply until I turn 70. Then I’ll be a “septuagenarian,” a word sometimes used to describe Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

After that come “octogenarian,” “nonagenarian” and “centenarian.”

If there are similar terms for the decade of the 50s or earlier ones, I haven’t encountered them. ”Sexagenarian” marks the beginning of a new age, so to speak.

There was a time when I thought anything with “sex” in it had to be good, but now I’m not so sure.

Maybe the word should be “hexagenarian,” using the Greek for “six” rather than the Latin. Even though the word “hex,” as in “curse,” comes from a different source, it might seem more appropriate.