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What does "past two" mean? Does it mean "in the last two years"?

Anne had an absolutely horrific time when it came to motherhood. She was pregnant 17 times in 17 years, but only one of her children survived past two. Now, centuries later, researchers believe they know why. (Factinate tweeted)

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    Past two [years of age]: It means that only one of her children reached the age of two.
    – JavaLatte
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 6:22
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    We can omit 'years of age' after a number and be understood. My father lived to be ninety. My sister is thirty.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 7:14
  • @MichaelHarvey Unusual to father a child at 60 or over, but power to your old man's elbow for doing so!
    – Prime Mover
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 7:33
  • 1. It was only an example (but you knew that). 2. It wasn't his elbow, I believe, but rather another part of his anatomy.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 9:25
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    Read the comment as "Unusual to father a child at 60 or over, but congratulations to your father for doing so!".
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 12:41

2 Answers 2

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It means "past two years of age".

Back in days before they had the same level of medical expertise that we have now, it was frequently the case that children died of the common childhood diseases which (in general, in the Western world) we no longer have to bear, because of the universal programes of vaccination that have been set up.

What is being stated in this article is that researchers believe they may have worked out what Anne's medical problems were that caused her children to be even less able to survive babyhood than usual even for that day and age.

(As has been pointed out in a comment to this answer, "Anne" is of course "Queen Anne" who was reigning monarch of England and Wales at the end of the 17th century, and whose demise signalled the end of the Stuart dynasty and the merging of England and Wales with the hitherto independent Scotland into one nation.)

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  • Note "Anne" is Queen Anne of Great Britain. And she indeed had miscarriages, children born dead, two baby girls died of smallpox and one son who lived to 11, before dying of pneumonia
    – James K
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 7:19
  • @JamesK Sorry, I would have mentioned that if I thought a) it was important, and b) that it was not obvious. Apologies, being immersed in the milieu myself it had not occurred to me that there may be readers on here who have not immediately recognised that this means Queen Anne. But in the context of the question, I'm not sure how much that knowledge contributes to the understanding of what the phrase in question means.
    – Prime Mover
    Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 7:24
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"Past two" can mean many different things. It can mean he stayed at the office until just past two [o'clock], or that someone was weeding rows of vegetables in a large garden plot and had to take a break just past two [rows]. What it means depends on the context, on what is being talked about.

Because your quote talks about motherhood and pregnancies centuries ago at a time when infant mortality rates were extremely high, it is reasonable to think in this case we are talking about two years. Sadly, only one child of her seventeen pregnancies survived past the age of two years.

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