Millennial
/mɪˈlɛn.i.əl/noun
Relating to a thousand years or to the generation born roughly between the early 1980s and the late 1990s.
Did you know?The word comes from Latin millennium, a 1,000-year period, and its deeper root is mille, meaning “thousand,” the same ancient number behind countless Roman calculations of fate, time, and power.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sm̥leys
“thousand”
Latin
Latin
mille
“thousand”
Late Latin
Latin
mille annus / millenni-
“a thousand years; thousand-year period”
Middle English
English
millenial / millennial
“pertaining to a thousand years”
Modern English
English
millennial
“relating to a thousand years; a member of the generation born around the 1980s–1990s”