📖 Meaning
Advanced in age and drawing near the end of one's life. The image is of the calendar year winding down into late autumn and winter, used figuratively for the twilight of a person's lifespan. It describes someone whose years are fading and whose time is running short.
📜 Origin Story
This chengyu has no single recorded source text and no famous origin story; it is a descriptive compound built from two classical collocations. '年衰' (years declining) appears in Han and later historical writing to describe officials or elders grown old, while '岁暮' (the year's end) is an ancient poetic image for the close of life and passing time, echoing lines such as Qu Yuan's Li Sao and Cao Cao's Gui Sui Shou on the dusk of one's days. Chinese tradition long equated the seasons of the year with the stages of human life, so spring meant youth and late autumn or winter meant old age. The two halves were eventually joined into one four-character phrase expressing old age and approaching death. It is used mainly in literary and written Chinese rather than everyday speech.
💡 Example Usage
父亲年衰岁暮，仍坚持每日到田间走动，放心不下这块耕作了一辈子的地。
Though my father is advanced in years and nearing the end of his life, he still insists on walking the fields every day, unable to let go of the land he has worked all his life.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 年衰岁暮
- Pinyin: nián shuāi suì mù
- Literal Translation: years, decline, seasons, end
- Category: Condition
- Characters: 4