starszych

Starszych is a Polish inflected form of the adjective related to age. It is most commonly the genitive plural of the comparative adjective starszy (older), and it can also appear as the accusative plural for masculine personal nouns when describing older people or older things. In practice, starszych functions as a marker of age in phrases where the noun it modifies is in genitive plural or, in some syntactic contexts, in the accusative plural.

Etymology and form: the root is from the adjective stary/starszy, meaning old or older. The suffix -ych marks the genitive plural (and, in masculine personal accusative, the corresponding form in a sentence). This form coexists with other gender and case endings of the same adjective, such as starszych ludzi, starszych pokoleń, or starszych członków.

Usage notes: starszych is used to denote age rather than a qualitative comparison alone. It appears with nouns in genitive plural, for example: "liczba starszych ludzi" (the number of older people) or "starszych pokoleń" (older generations). It is not a standalone noun; its meaning depends on the noun it modifies and the overall grammatical case.

See also: stary, starszy, wiek, geriatryka.