"years of discretion"

The first edition of the OED defines "age of discretion" or "years of discretion" like this: In English Law at the time this volume of the OED was written, the age of discretion was 14.

This discussion is based in part on the definition of the word discretion in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.

To Act I or Act II of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

To the homepage of this Mikado website.

Suggestions, contributions, criticisms, questions? Email Sharon Cogdill.

(c) Copyright 1998 Sharon Cogdill, dramaturg for this production and author of this website.

College of Fine Arts and Humanities

St. Cloud State University

This URL: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/scogdill/mikado/discretion.html.

Last update: 19 May 1998.