Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Past mature age; beyond middle age: Describes a person who has passed the age considered to be the prime or middle of life, often implying advanced age or being elderly. This is an archaic or literary term.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Ông ấy đã quá niên nhưng vẫn còn minh mẫn. (He is past mature age but still sharp-minded.)
  • Cụ bà quá niên sống một mình trong ngôi nhà nhỏ. (The elderly lady, past her prime, lives alone in a small house.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "quá niên" is rarely used in modern, everyday Vietnamese. It belongs to a more formal, classical, or poetic register. In contemporary language, terms like "cao tuổi" (advanced age), "già" (old), or "lớn tuổi" (elderly) are more common.
• It can carry a respectful or neutral tone when referring to age in literary contexts.

Variants and Related Words

• Tuổi tác (n): Age.
• Trung niên (n): Middle age.
• Lão niên (n): Old age (formal/literary).

Synonyms

• Già: Old.
• Cao tuổi: Advanced in age.
• Lớn tuổi: Elderly.

Related Idioms

• "Tuổi già sức yếu": Old age and declining strength.
• "Thất thập cổ lai hy": (A Sino-Vietnamese idiom) It is rare to live to seventy; used to refer to reaching a venerable old age.

1. (từ cũ) Past mature age