elderly vs older

21:39 Feb 18, 2011 

Elderly patients are always elderly, but on a pediatrics ward older patients are in their teens, on a maternity ward older patients are in their late thirties and early forties and on the neonatology ward older patients are only months old.

18:48 Feb 18, 2011 

As this is medical, I think that one should reasonably expect "older" not to be used as a euphemism for "old".

One of the reasons why elderly people are vulnerable to getting hypothermic is that they sometimes fail to feel the cold. I have noticed that as I get older I feel the cold less, but that could be the result of high-tech clothing. I am neither old nor elderly!

17:46 Feb 18, 2011 

Although 'older' is theoretically a comparative, in everyday usage, we often use it in this sort of way, where there is no direct comparison being made, e.g. "older houses need more maintenance" or "older people tend to feel the cold". Although there may be an element of comparison in the generalized sense of 'compared to other people etc.', I don't think it's a true comparative in such uses. In many cases, it seems almost to be something of a euphemism, to avoid saying 'old people'!

However, in this particular context, I agree with Allison's comment, that there is a danger, because we are talking about a specific group of people, that it might be mistaken for a true comparative, thus leading to a distortion of the meaning.

16:57 Feb 18, 2011 

If you want to discuss the very old patient, you might consider using "geriatric." Older and elderly don't convey the same meaning. "Management of the Critically Ill Geriatric Patient" http://www.springerlink.com/content/p6073l52345502t1/

16:54 Feb 18, 2011 

elderly is not