I was with a small group recently, and the term “over the hill” was used. Actually, I hadn’t heard it for a long time…. you may find that surprising, given my age, but I hadn’t heard it for a while.
The expression is used to describe someone that is past their prime, is old beyond usefulness, or is no longer able to perform the way they used to. It apparently originated by someone illustrating their life as a hill where the peak of the hill represented the halfway point of life. Once they had exceeded that halfway point in age, they were said to be “over the hill” of life.
I guess when you reach a certain age, people start to tell you that you are over the hill. But what is the actual age that qualifies you for being over the hill? I Googled “at what age are you over the hill?” and got a ton of responses between about 25 to 75 — although the number 40 seemed to pop up more than most other ages.
The phrase means to be past your prime — that your best years are now far behind you. I just wonder if this is attributable to a certain age…. I really don’t even know at what age people are considered old. I think it probably depends on the person and certainly what century you were born in. The age that people living today are considered old is getting higher and higher. Due to modern science and technology, the average life expectancy is continually increasing. In ancient Egypt, due to high infant mortality and widespread disease, the average person died at about 19.
There just doesn’t seem to be a particular number when people are officially “old.”
Actually I don’t think anyone likes to be referred to as old and it seems kind of rude for someone else to tell you when you are old or past your prime. I’ve never really considered life to be a continuous climb until some age and then a slow demise — it’s more like a continuous bumpy road. The idea of it being a hill, doesn’t really make much sense to me.
Someone said that age is just a number — I guess that’s true, unless you let that “number” define you. Anyhow, I may fit into the category that that idiomatic expression refers to, but I don’t know how I got over the hill without getting to the top….
— 30 —