generation

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌdʒen.əˈreɪ.ʃᵊn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English generacioun,^[2] borrowed from Old French generacion (“race, people; offspring; procreation”),^[3][4] and directly from Latin generātiō (“a generating, begetting”),^[3][4] from generāre (“to bring forth, beget, produce”),^[3][4] from genus (“race, kind”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Offspring, descendants, and a group of descendants of one family or period: before 1325, in Cursor Mundi.^[4] Etymonline dates the sense “people born about the same time” to the early 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The idea was of descendants at the same stage in a line of descent;^[3] a generation was traditionally reckoned at 30 years, though in other uses as few as 17.^[3] The act of begetting, procreation, is from about 1374 in the OED^[5] and the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[3] Production by natural or artificial processes is from about 1400,^[5] and the production of electricity from 1886.^[5] First-generation and second-generation, of American immigrant families, are from 1856.^[3] Generation gap is recorded by 1967,^[3] and Generation X, for Americans born after the baby boomers, from 1991, in Douglas Coupland's book of that name.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1325 – offspring; a generation.^[4]
• c. 1374 – procreation.^[5]
• c. 1400 – production.^[5]
• 1856 – second-generation immigrants.^[3]
• 1886 – the generation of electricity.^[5]
• 1967 – generation gap.^[3]
• 1991 – Generation X.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. All the people born and living at about the same time.
2. A single stage in the descent of a family: three generations.
3. The average time between the birth of parents and of their children, about 30 years.
4. The act of producing or creating: the generation of electricity.
5. A stage in the development of a product: a new generation of computers.

Word family

• generational
• generationally
• cogeneration
• first-generation
• intergeneration
• intergenerational
• pregeneration
• regeneration

Related words

• generate
• genus
• gender
• genre
• general
• genetic
• kin

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press