Fashionable Words: Codger

[Sometimes words die out of fashion. But sometimes those words are good words, words with a certain appeal that can't be denied forever. Those words should be brought back into fashion, used frequently and used often. These are those words.]


Word:

codger


Definition:  noun

A typically elderly man who is eccentric or strange in a humorous way.


Origin:

Despite the old man angle, this has nothing to do with anyone named Roger or that delicious fish we all love, cod.

Not a codger cod, but a tasty cod.

The best words are the ones that confuse the experts in a variety of ways. The beauty of a word like codger is that it not only suggests eccentric behavior, but it's so eccentric as a word that dictionaries and etymologists are lost. Nothing like quality synergy, I tell ya!

Google will tell you codger is derogatory, an insult to elderly men said by some misanthropic millennial. Yet, Dictionary.com suggests codger is said with affection, like when you aww-shucks your old uncle Ken (a codger) at his surprise 90th birthday party. The Free Dictionary? It defines codger as both offensive and loving. Indeed, all dictionaries waffle between both extremes when offering a definition. Kindergartners at an ice cream stand are more decisive.

Kind of like the old man in 'Up' was a codger.

What experts agree on is that codger first came into use by the mid-1700s as an evolution of the obsolete word cadger. A cadger was someone who begged or was a peddler, based off the verb to cadge. It suggests a more romantic time for homelessness or being destitute, all while channeling the best of Charles Dickens before Dickens ever got around to making poverty look quaint. Oliver Twist? Totally grew up to be a codger.

Oliver Twist is a codger waitin' to happen!

As for cadge/cadger--etymologists have no idea where it came from. Some suggest the Middle English caggen, meaning "to tie," but how tying something came to mean begging is beyond understanding.

At least we can envision Granddad being eccentric like some pre-Victorian era beggar.


Most obscure UrbanDictionary.com definition of 'codger':
(verbatim)

3.)  Usually following the word "old"; 
a coffin dodger, an old person who moans about their arthritis. They have little hair on their head, but compensate by tufts sprouting from their ears and noses (male) chins and top lips (female). 
They dispise anything that anyone under 30 may do. 
Cant manage to drive more than 30mph, and only drive on Sundays.

Codgers only drive like this in shopping plaza parking lots.

Used in a sentence:

The flaky codger taught the kids in the alley how he used to play dice back in the day.


Why you should use 'codger' in your everyday life:

How often can you offend someone in a pleasant way?


Word Awesomeness Scale (1-to-5):

Two

After all, alluding that Gramps is also a beggar and/or a peddler is a bit low.