year-old

English

Etymology

The combining form -year-old dates from Middle English (ȝeer old(e), yeer old(e), yere old(e)).

Pronunciation

• enPR: yîrʹōld

Adjective

year-old (not comparable)

1. Of the age of one year.

   He bought a year-old car.

Noun

year-old (plural year-olds)

1. Someone or something of the age of one year.
   • 1840, John Morton, “[Farm-Reports.] A Gloucestershire Hill-Farm.”, in Husbandry: Volume the Third. Comprising Reports of Select Farms; Outlines of Flemish Husbandry; Useful and Ornamental Planting; Road-Making; Cottage Economy. (Library of Useful Knowledge), London: Baldwin and Cradock, […], pages 17–18:

     The year-olds are kept in the field all winter, in the same way as the calves, but get straw instead of hay, till near Christmas. They, of course, require more hay than the calves; but much hay is saved by their eating up the rough grass, left by the cows that pastured the ground in the summer, the calves and the year-olds being kept, during winter, in the old pasture-lands, never upon the poor, wet, thin clay.

   • 1851, “Account of the Show of the Highland and Agricultural Society held at Glasgow in 1850”, in Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], page 400:

     The year-olds were promising; but as fillies alter much after that age, it is uncertain how these may turn out.

   • 1911, John E. Taylor, “How 700 Hens Make a Net Profit of $1300 a Year: […]”, in Chamber of Commerce Journal of Maine, volume 24, page 237:

     The year-olds are put into pens by themselves, so that when breeding time comes the addition of the cockerels is all that is necessary.

Usage notes

• Preceded by a number – someone or something of that many years old.

References

• “year-old”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.