Being so old as a contemporary (2,2,3)

'contemporary' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'being so old as a' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'old' could be 'o' (abbreviation) and 'o' is present in the answer.
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found within the answer.
'being' could be 'fag' (fag is a kind of being) and 'fag' is located in the remaining letters.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?