| Definitions | | day and age |
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noun
- also, "in this day and age": describing an event or phenomenon that can occur only in the present; describing a current and novel situation. synonym: these days
The idiom is "day and age," not "day in age" as it is sometimes written. Its meaning is straight-forward: "In this day and age, kids are more likely to steal," meaning that both in the modern, curent time period "today," as well as in the slightly broader era in which one lives (the 1960s, or the 21st century, e.g.) children are liklier to steal than in a previous time. It is purposely redundant, like the phrases aid and abet (help and help) and null and void (nonexistant and nonexistant). The phrase is used overwhelmingly with a negative connotation; that is, "you can't trust the media in this day and age" or "in this day and age the internet is a breeding ground for sexual predators," but more rarely "children are learning faster in this day and age." In the first two examples, as is often the case, the phrase has a cynical undertone and heavily alludes to a (imagined) better time in the past when things were "simpler," etc. In more broad terms, the phrase "this day and age" seems to represent a general angst about modern life (or perhaps, more accurately, post-modern life).
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