Quinquagenarians
[kwin-kwuh-juh-nair-ee-uh n]
T
Krista Knauer
his month, we are rejoicing
in being Fabulous Over Fifty!
Being fifty years old (or older)
is something to celebrate.
Anyone can be fab over fifty!
So what do we call those who are
fifty years old or in their fifties?
Quinquagenarians. (Wow, that’s
a mouthful. Before looking into
it, I fully expected the word to be
“pentagenarians,” which is still a rather
long word.) “Quinquagenarian” comes
from the Latin word “quinquaginta,”
meaning “fifty.” Fun fact: the Roman
numeral for quinquaginta is “L,” which
isn’t visually appealing. Therefore when
the National Football League held their
fiftieth Super Bowl earlier this year, it
was known as Super Bowl 50 instead
of Super Bowl L, not in keeping with
previous Super Bowls, starting with the
fifth Super Bowl (Super Bowl V), which
used Roman numerals in their names.
Besides celebrating being fifty and
older, we are also celebrating fiftieth
anniversaries. Traditionally, for fiftieth
anniversaries, gifts made of gold were
given since gold is a precious medal.
By giving gold, you were telling your
partner that you cherished them
as much (hopefully more than) as a
precious metal. So, we have chosen
the color gold as one of our main
colors for this issue of our magazine.
So to all of our readers who are
fifty years old or older or who are
celebrating fiftieth anniversaries,
continue being Fab Over Fifty!
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WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE
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SEPTEMBER 2016