Geezer

In my last post I wrote about the Geezer Bandit. The story of his exploits aroused my curiosity about the origin of the word geezer. According to worddetective.com, geezer derives from an English dialectal term guiser, which referred to a person of any age who dresses up in costume. In costume a person assumes a new guise, acting in a way that is out of the ordinary. The word gradually changed its meaning from a person wearing a costume or disguise to one who is simply odd. The meaning kept on changing, from an odd person to an old person to simply an old man.

The original meaning of geezer, it seems to me, remains at its core. The old are odd, different from the rest of the population. In general, we don’t work for a living, our memories weaken along with our physical strength, our health has declined, our life expectancy has drastically contracted, and in reaction we’re often crotchety. If the referent of geezer has changed from all old people to old men only, perhaps the reason is that old men are even odder than old women. After women retire from employment, they continue in the domestic tasks that they have always performed, and they often find satisfaction in helping to care for their grandchildren. This may give old women a greater sense of continuity and purpose. In any case, retirement seems not as disorienting for them as it is for men, whose identity is often bound up in their work.

The closest equivalents to geezer that I can find for old woman are crone and hag, but these terms are highly pejorative, yet another instance of sexism. Geezer is not so much pejorative as condescending. The picture it arouses is that of an unkempt, somewhat wayward old man. If crone demonstrates sexism and geezer condescension, both reflect agism.

So, old people of the world, unite! We have nothing to lose but our derogatory and condescending terms. Demand to be called what we are: not geezers, not crones, but old people. There’s no shame in that.