xennial en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈzɛnɪəl/ (UK)
- /ˈzɛniəl/ (US)
- /ɛksˈɛniəl/ (US)
- /ɛksˈɛnɪəl/ (UK)
Etymology
Blend of (Generation) X + millennial.
Meanings
-
(informal) A person born late in Generation X or early in Generation Y, that is, sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s; a member of the Oregon Trail Generation.
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 July 6, Sarah Stankorb, “I Made Up Xennial 3 Years Ago, So Why Is a Professor in Australia Getting All the Credit?”, in Vogue: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.
2014 September 25, Sarah Stankorb, “Glad to be a Xennial”, in GOOD: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).
2017 November 10, Dwight Adams, “You're a xennial — if you're caught between Generation X and millennials”, in Indianapolis Star:I’m a reluctant millennial myself (or possibly — God forbid — an xennial), stuck in the pretty common category of not identifying with my so-called generation.
2023 April 20, Casey Schwartz, “Jean Twenge is ready to make you defend your generation again”, in The Washington Post:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xennial | alternative | lexicographic | |
| xennials | Number=Plur | lexicographic |