forty-two-year-old
UK[ˈfɔːti tuː jɪər əʊld]US[ˈfɔːrti tuː jɪr oʊld]
adj
Being forty-two years of age
n
A person who is forty-two years old
Morpheme Breakdown
forty
two
year
old
forty
40
two
2
year
time period
old
aged
Etymology
The compound "forty-two-year-old" is a modern English construction built entirely from native Germanic elements. Its formation follows the standard pattern for creating compound adjectives and nouns denoting specific ages, combining cardinal numbers ("forty-two") with the unit of time ("year") and the descriptor of age ("old"). The logic is purely arithmetic and descriptive, directly stating a quantity of years of existence. Each component has a clear, ancient lineage: "forty" and "two" derive from the Proto-Germanic counting system, "year" from a root meaning "season" or "period," and "old" from a root meaning "grown, adult." The hyphenated structure is a grammatical convention to signal that these separate words function as a single, cohesive modifier or noun phrase.
Analysis
Structure: forty (40) + two (2) + year (time period) + old (aged)
forty: From Old English 'féowertig', meaning "four tens". A cardinal number.
two: From Old English 'twā', the numeral 2. A cardinal number.
year: From Old English 'gēar', meaning "year, period of time". A noun.
old: From Old English 'eald', meaning "aged, ancient". An adjective.
Examples
She is a forty-two-year-old architect with two decades of experience.
The study focused on a group of forty-two-year-olds to track midlife health trends.
He bought a sports car, a classic forty-two-year-old's dream.