age before beauty
- idiom
- Informal
:
la edad antes que la belleza
- As the door opened, she smiled and said, 'age before beauty,' letting her grandfather enter first.
Examples
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Whenever we line up for cake, Dad insists, 'age before beauty,' to get the first slice.
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He stepped aside with a grin, joking, 'age before beauty,' as he invited his colleague ahead.
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Ladies first, but remember: age before beauty!
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When entering the room, I always say, age before beauty.
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As the door opened, she smiled and said, 'age before beauty,' letting her grandfather enter first.
-
He stepped aside with a grin, joking, 'age before beauty,' as he invited his colleague ahead.
-
Whenever we line up for cake, Dad insists, 'age before beauty,' to get the first slice.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning — that older people should go before younger/more attractive people — follows directly from the compositional pattern 'X before Y' combined with the nouns 'age' and 'beauty' referring metonymically to older people and attractive people. Although it's a conventional, humorous remark, the mapping is straightforward and a B1 learner who knows the constituent words and the ordering construction will readily infer the intended sense.
Etymology
Age before beauty comes from a playful idea of letting the older person go first. It links age (an older person) with beauty (a younger, attractive person), so people use it as a joking way to give someone 'priority' or to be 'polite'.
