title: Tracing the origins of success: implications for successful aging.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper addresses the debate about the use of the term "successful aging" from a humanistic, rather than behavioral, perspective. It attempts to uncover what success, a term frequently associated with aging, is: how can it be defined and when did it first come into use? In this paper, we draw from a number of humanistic perspectives, including the historical and linguistic, in order to explore the evolution of the term "success." We believe that words and concepts have deep implications for how concepts (such as aging) are culturally and historically perceived.
  
  
  METHODS
  We take a comparative approach, turning to the etymological roots of this term in British, French, and German literature. According to the earliest entries of the term in the Oxford English Dictionary, events can have good or bad success. Another definition marks success as outcome oriented.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Often used in the context of war, religion, and medicine, the neutral, but often negative, use of "success" in literature of the Renaissance demonstrates the tensions that surround the word, and suggests that success is something to be approached carefully.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ignoring the ambiguous origins of success erases the fact that aging in earlier centuries echoes much of the same ambivalence with which many people discuss it today. Attending to the origins of success can help gerontologists understand the humanistic tradition behind their inquiry into what successful aging means today.
authors.affiliation: Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. npeterson10@unl.edu.
authors.forename: Nora M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003469:Culture; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000266:history*; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008136:Longevity; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Literature; Longevity; Successful aging