xennial
English
Etymology
Blend of (Generation) X + millennial.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈzɛnɪəl/, /ɛksˈɛnɪəl/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈzɛniəl/, /ɛksˈɛniəl/
Noun
xennial (plural xennials)
- (informal) A person born late in Generation X or early for millennials, i.e. some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s. [from 21st c.]
- Coordinate terms: Joneser, Zillennial
- 2014 September 25, Stankorb, Sarah, “Glad to be a Xennial”, in GOOD:
- I was born in 1980. According to some sources, this makes me a Gen Xer. According to others, I’m a Millennial. That makes me what then, a Xennial? I take online quizzes, like Pew Research Center’s “How Millennial Are You?”, and land dead between Gen X and Millennial due to my personal habits, body piercings, and so many more reasons.
- 2017 July 6, Stankorb, Sarah, “I Made Up Xennial 3 Years Ago, So Why Is a Professor in Australia Getting All the Credit?”, in Vogue:
- Xennial is a term that I first used in a 2014 story for GOOD magazine, following on the heels of writers like Doree Shafrir, who in 2011 called this cusp generation’s pop-cultural misfit status Generation Catalano, after crowdsourcing the My So-Called Life–inspired term from Danielle Nussbaum on Twitter.
- 2017 November 10, Adams, Dwight, “You're a xennial — if you're caught between Generation X and millennials”, in Indianapolis Star:
- But there's this new group, you may know them — that microgeneration sandwiched between — who feel like they don't really belong to either group […] Love it or hate it, there's a newish name for these lost souls: the "xennials" (pronounced ZEE-knee-als).
See also
| Timeline of generations |
|---|
 |