Generation D

[Arnold Zwicky]

larry horn on "generation X":
 >I confess I'm just being either lazy or impatient--my RHHDAS, which
 >may have the answer, is at home, and I'm not.

not in RHHDAS.  both "generation X" (attributed to coupland) and
"generation Y" are in AHD4, though. "generation X" is even in the
most recent chambers (1998), where it has this (to me) extraordinary
definition:
  those sections of society that are sceptical about traditionally
  held beliefs and values, eg relating to work and the family
is it really true that in britain this expression has cut free
entirely from its origin as the name of an actual generation, and
now conveys only the attitudes (once) associated with that generation?
(metonymy rules!)

i have some interest in finding the earliest cites for "gen X"
or "gen-X".  some of you might recall that i've been collecting
examples of "gen-X SO" (as in "I am so not going to look at this
issue"), so the first uses of "gen-X" would be worth a footnote.
(i've managed to pass this project on to a stanford grad student,
so the footnote would be his rather than mine.)

now *i'm* being lazy.  too lazy to go downstairs and root through
installments of "Among the New Words" from the late 80s and the early
90s.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)