Ahem…
The Times’ style guide for its journalists, is described as a guide rather than a “straitjacket”, that all journalists should follow the style “but occasional exceptions can be made”. Here’s the entry in the guide for “elderly”:
elderly, aged, old be sensitive in the use of these words. As a guide, do not use for people under 65 and be aware that there are many over this age for whom “elderly” is not an appropriate adjective. A consensus is building for the term “older people
And today’s Times headline for the launch of the green paper on social care:
Elderly could have to to pay up to £20,000 for care
A occasional exception perhaps? Let’s search Times online for articles that use the word elderly. Ok, so that gives us 11, 719 occasional and exceptional uses of the word elderly.
Cross reference. Let’s search the Times using a Google search restricted to the newspaper’s site only. OK, this time we have 8, 510 exceptional uses of the word “elderly”.
Have I made my point yet?
The editors of the style guides get it, elderly is a disempowering term that triggers negative stereotyping, and in certain contexts lapses into ageism. The reporters and the subs, at the moment, clearly don’t.
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