Generation X

English

WOTD – 10 April 2021

From generation +‎ X (“used to represent an unknown quantity or unknown value”). Sense 2 (“the post-baby boom generation”) was popularized by the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991) by the Canadian author and artist Douglas Coupland (born 1961).[1][2]

Generation X (originally Canada, Australia , New Zealand, US, UK, Ireland)

(originally) A generation of people whose future is uncertain; a lost generation. [from 1950s]
- 1964, Charles Hamblett, Jane Deverson, Generation X, →OCLC, page 191:
  When historians evaluate the contribution of Generation X one theme will recur over and over again, and that is the rage and revulsion handed from Father to Son.
(specifically) The generation of people born after the baby boom that followed World War II, especially those born from the mid 1960s to early 1980s, sometimes characterized as cynical, disaffected, lacking direction in life, and unwilling to take part fully in society.
Synonyms: MTV generation, (dated) 13th Gen

Coordinate terms: boomers, Generation Y, Generation Z
- 1995 June 18, John Marchese, “The short shelf life of Generation X”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 35:
  Any self-respecting Generation Xer […] might notice that Mr. [Douglas] Coupland's death knell for Generation X coincides with the promotion of his latest book, “Microserfs” (HarperCollins)

generation of people born after the baby boom that followed World War II

“Generation X, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “Generation X, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Eric Partridge (2005) “Generation X; Gen X”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 853.

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