Spot the Frippet: something venerable.

Are you, or do you plan to be, venerable?

Or just past it?

(Or, for the pessimists among us, short-lived?)

To be venerable is to be admired and valued for your great age, and for the knowledge and wisdom which is (sometimes) a by-product.

If there's no chance of that by the end of play today then there are other ways of being venerable, and one of them doesn't even involve being old (though it does involve being an official in the Church of England (an archdeacon) which is even harder than being old).

Never mind, if you're a member of the Roman Catholic church you can be venerable without even having to be alive; someone venerable in this case has been officially decreed holy by the church, but he (or she) hasn't yet been recognised as a saint.

Come to think about it, though, that must be the hardest way of being venerable there is.

As for spotting something venerable, then you're either on the look-out for an old person who retains some sense of dignity, or something other kind of dignified old thing. You might see a venerable dog, or a venerable church, or a venerable book, or a venerable aeroplane:


this is a Sopwith Camel

Just make sure that when you do see it, you give some thought to exactly how much you should venerate it.

Spot the Frippet: something venerable. This word comes from the Latin venerāri, to venerate.