Almost-Old
Old is relative, and almost-old is . . . very . . . related. The almost-old call themselves middle-aged, but to the young they are already old, and to the really old they are still young. The almost-old still have most of their faculties. They can still bend over and get back up. They can still hear you talking about them.
Things can be almost-old too. If you're like most people, almost-all the stuff in your house is almost-old: not old enough to throw out (see almost-garbage) but old enough for you to be eyeing new ones when you pass them in the stores. It is the almost-old in our lives that is responsible for most "impulse buys." ("Oh what the heck," we say, "the one we have right now will not last forever.")
Ideas and ways of doing things can be almost-old. Few of us still use an open fire to cook food. Few of us ride a horse to work. Orators use a microphone instead of yelling their message.
Types/Categories
2. Things that expire or decay: Living things. Inanimate things. Ideas. (Humans. Trees. Clothes. Pyramids. Religions.)
1. Things that have been almost-superceded: Living things. Inanimate things. Ideas. (A personage, a living plant, wool as insulator surface, the idea of "crypts," religion.)
Examples
People will live on, but not necessarily in human form.
If Aristotle were alive now, he would modernize himself quickly.
Plants may live on, but their roles in the following may change: symbiosis with mobile-life, contribution to planetary surface environment, relationship with non-living things, their presence and distribution around the Milky Way, their relationships with each other.
More Examples
Almost-old.
Almost-old.
Almost-old.
Almost-old.
Almost as old as the hills.
Links
| Almost-Old | Comment |
| www.brookings.edu | Medicare for the Almost-Old |
| www.daviesand.com | Trees: almost old growth |
