Wellderly

In his weekly NY Times column Jack Rosenthal ponders what to call a huge group of the population who refuse to pop-off and would rather stay active, healthy and live longer. Jack writes:

Some people have always lived to be very old, but never before have so many lived so much longer and stronger. The words “poor,” “sick” and “old” used to be virtually hyphenated. Many millions can now look forward to 20, 25 and more years after retirement of decent health, sustainable income, productivity and service… What to call these millions[?]

…Oldsters and golden agers are patronizing, targets for comics. Then there are outright coarse insults like geezers, gaffers, crocks or gomers, the acronym that some cranky doctors use to mean “get out of my emergency room.”

Still other terms fail because they are too narrow. Boomers, describing those born when the population started to bulge in 1946, are only now starting to enter their 60s. Retirees is an imperfect generalization because, for one thing, many people retire young and, for another, many older people continue to work, whether for the money or the satisfaction.

…There is probably no single acceptable term — because no single term can embrace so vast and varied a population. The ultimate answer will most likely be a suite of functional and factual terms, like the typology scholars use to distinguish between the young old, 65 to 80; the old old, 80 to 90; the oldest old, 90 to 99; and centenarians. Terms like these, though somewhat awkward, are apt to enter common usage as society faces up to the new age of age. Necessity is the mother of locution.
On Language – Jack Rosenthal – Aged – Senior Citizens – Boomers – New York Times