English
millennial
Millennial comes from Latin mīllennis ‘thousand-year’, and goes back to annus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEannus‘year’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEannīs
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmīllennis‘thousand-year’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEmīllennium
- Englishearliest quotation 1660millennial
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEannus‘year’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEannīs
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmīllennis‘thousand-year’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEmīllennium
- Englishearliest quotation 1660millennial
Earliest quotation: 1660, Henry More, London: […] J[ames] Flesher: “VVhereas the very Povver of the Civil Magisſtrate and…”
Formed from millennium + -al
The story
The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin mīllennium (‘millennium’) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming nouns). The English word may be analysed as millennium + -al or milli- (prefix meaning ‘thousand’) + -ennial (suffix meaning ‘years’). Adjective sense 5 (‘of or relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades of the 20th century’) was coined by the American authors William Strauss (1947–2007) and Neil Howe (born 1951) in their book Generations (1991): see the quotations.
Linked words
through Latin annus ‘year’
annual, ann, annuity, annum, perennial, biennial, biennale, 12 more
Today it means
adj Thousand-year-old; also (by extension, loosely) thousands of years old.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin annus / millennial