What does “22 going on 16” mean?

I found the phrase in the article of the Time magazine (July 6 issue) dealing with the Casey Anthony Verdict, under the title, The Casey Anthony Verdict The Jury Did the Right Thing.

And yet, why would Anthony kill her daughter? When Caylee died in 2008, her mother was young and blithe, 22 going on 16. Anthony lived with her parents, dated lots of guys and wasn't thrilled about having to care every day for a 2-year-old. And so she chloroformed the girl? Or duct-taped her face?

I know Casey Anthony was 22 when her 2-years old daughter was killed, but I have no idea about “going on 16.” What does it mean? “Is the phrase, “going on 16” understood without question to any native English speakers?

Solution 1:

The usual, humorous, phrase is like this:

My daughter is 16, going on 32!

It simply means she is precocious. She is only 16, but she already behaves in a very mature way. So in the usual phrase, the age difference goes upwards. Another example, "My kindergarten kid is 5 going on 10!"

That's the usual direction of the joke. But here, the author here is deliberately turning it around the other way.

So indeed the author is expressing that the woman is 22 but behaves immaturely.

To understand this usage:

In English commercial writing, in the present day, there is a fad to take an existing humorous phrase, and "turn it around". The idea is that it (supposedly) sounds even more witty when reversed. You could say this is an "overused trick" in English commercial writing today. The example at hand is precisely an example of that process.

(Note: as Robusto explains, "going on" very simply means "almost". For example, "to walk to the store is five, going on six, miles", "renovation costs are 80 thousand, going on 90 thousand.")

So, to get the entire feel of the passage in English relies on the following chain:

1) "Going on" means "almost": the child is six going on seven. That sentence simply means "almost seven".

2) Very commonplace humorous use of "going on" with a large gap going upwards, used specifically of precocious children: that girl is 15 going on 35!

3) In this case, the author has "turned around" that usual humorous pattern: "the person is 35 going on 15". Note again that it is common (today) in commercial English to invert a common humorous construction, to create a (supposedly) even funnier one.

By the way, the phrase Sixteen Going on Seventeen is indeed one of the handful of most famous "showtunes" in all of English, 1965,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwK_WOXjfc0

(immortal performance in the film by Charmian Carr) So that song was written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers (the two most famous "showtunes" era composers) and it's one of the songs in The Sound of Music (far and away the most popular musical show and film in English).

So, for any English speaker, whenever you say or hear the phrase "16 going on 17" (much as with "do-a-deer", "brown paper packages" "edelweiss" and indeed others from the same show) it associates instantly with the song.

Solution 2:

It means she was young and immature. The phrase "going on" means nearing in age.

My daughter is six going on seven.

This means she is almost seven.

If the gap is wide, it suggests either that she is precocious (18 going on 30) or immature (22 going on 16).

Joe Blow has covered a lot of this already, but I feel it is important to emphasize that this phrase comes from a standard, literal usage meaning "getting close to [in age]".