Is it pejorative to use "old girl" to refer to a woman?

Does it encompass any specific age group? (young, middle-aged, elderly, all of them)

I heard it in an old film and read it once in sentences like:

• "Come on, old girl, cheer up."

• "Who is that old girl you were talking to?"

old girl - a familiar name used to refer to a woman

EDIT - So as to avoid multiple interpretations of the idiom, and too many answers, let's keep this question to its use in BrE.

Solution 1:

There are essentially two distinct and different uses.

Former pupils of schools are sometimes known as 'Old Boys' and 'Old Girls'. David Cameron, the present Prime Minister is an Old Boy of Eton College. Princess Anne is an Old Girl of Benenden School in Kent. The use may be becoming dated, with more and more schools converting to co-ed, and the increasing use of 'former pupil'. (How boring!)

Both Old Boy and Old Girl, are hearty backslapping terms of endearment among social equals, more often in the upper strata of society. It is a bit like the working-class expression 'mate', but in a higher social register. Old Boy, especially, has a military officer ring about it. Again one senses that calling people old girl or old boy has been in decline for several decades.

Though it is non-pejorative I would counsel any visitor to Britain to take care how they use it. It is a term which could sound slightly preposterous if used in an inappropriate register.

Solution 2:

According to ODO, the expression 'old girl' is used in different situations, and the age group of reference may be different according to context. It is not generally considered pejorative:

• (British) a former female student of a school or college: one of the college’s most famous old girls

• A former female member of a sports team or company: other old girls of this magazine have done well

• informal , (chiefly British) an elderly woman: they’re a couple of harmless old girls

• an affectionate form of address to a girl or woman: he said, ‘Don’t worry, old girl’

Solution 3:

Is it pejorative to use “old girl” to refer to a woman?

I think it cannot be used pejoratively: because if you call someone an "old boy" or "old girl", you simultaneously mean to to say that you yourself are, that everyone is, also an old boy or old girl.

It's "familiar", i.e. you can use it to someone if they are family.

The term "old boy" is normally used, or perhaps I should say it's also used, for someone who used to be at a "school": see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Boys

So you can use it to a stranger if (only if) you want to say, "Although you're not my family, we both went to the same type of school, and so we have that experience and those social values in common."

So you could use it in a phrase like, "Cheer up, old boy!" or "Steady on, old girl!". But it is being "familiar". And perhaps self-consciously archaic, these days.

Does it encompass any specific age group? (young, middle-aged, elderly, all of them)

Post secondary-school age: because otherwise you're just "boy" or "girl". :-)

By the way I did once (long ago) hear "old woman" (not "old girl") being used pejoratively: during a game of football at school, being told that you're "playing like an old woman".

I'd say that referring to a woman as "old girl" is affectionate.

Even if you could say it to someone, you might not want to: because it might sound "Hooray Harry" unless you're someone who's too kind to be criticised.

Did I mention it might seem slightly condescending? Because it is familiar, it would be slightly taking liberties with someone who's a social superior, or who's older and wiser than you are.

Maybe you could use it to someone to whom you're about to give some advice.

On the other hand you might, possibly, use it as a term of an endearment, to an old friend. Again, because it is familiar. But it could sound weird, if it's not the kind of person you are and the kind of person your friend is.

Another reason why you might not use it is that, for such a familiar mode of address, it may be overly formal. If you know someone that well, why not use their given name to address them? So maybe it is or was a term that you could use with semi-strangers, who you're thrown together with in a institutional setting: e.g. when you meet someone because you're both in the army, in a club, in government, perhaps in the judiciary, etc. And I strongly suspect its use has declined at all institutions, for example because any reference to an "old boy network" is now politically incorrect.