Word Spy - middle youth

middle youth

n. The age, now generally considered to be from the late 20s to the early 40s, when a person is too old to be a youth and too young to be middle-aged; the state of mind of people in this age group who resist the usual trappings of encroaching middle age.

Example Citation:

"Unlike some people, I know I will someday be ol ... ol ... less young than I am now. In fact I already know I'm no longer a kid. I cheerfully admit that I am well into my middle youth."
—Adair Lara, "Talkin' Bout My Generation," The San Francisco Chronicle, January 2, 2001

Notes:

This term became very popular in Britain in late 1997 and has remained largely a British phenomenon. The first use of the term came earlier that year, and provides a possible clue to the origin of the term — the PR campaign of a new women's magazine called Red:

"If you haven't heard of Red then you haven't been reading the papers, or looking at posters or watching the TV news or going to the cinema or ... well, if you haven't heard of Red then, basically, you shouldn't be working in PR.
It's the biggest-spending women's launch since Marie Claire some 13 years ago and it's targeting a whole new concept in women — 'middle youth'."
—Stephen Armstrong, "Media Profile: Putting the sisters on Red alert — Kathryn Brown, editor, Red," PR Week, January 23, 1997

Category:

Aging and Death

Posted on February 6, 2001