kidult

(ki.DULT or KID.ult)

n.

A middle-aged person who continues to participate in and enjoy youth culture. — adj. Relating to something, particularly a form of media, that appeals to both children and adults.

Example Citation:

'Adult toys' may sound like a risque phrase, but it is also used to describe the playthings that 'kidults' (those of us who never quite grew up) have been buying in increasing numbers.

— Celia Walden, "Trigger happy," Mail On Sunday, January 13, 2002

Earliest Citation:

And in the background, on a much less lavish scale, is LBS communications, which doesn't own its own stations but provides a lucrative stream of 'kidult' — children, teenager and young adult — programming to independents.

— Peter Martin, "Coming Soon: TV's New Boy Network," The Times, August 11, 1985

Notes:

This blend of kid and adult was made semi-famous (in some circles, anyway) last year with the release of a CD titled "Kidults," by Mandy Patinkin. (For some reason, imparting that information makes me want to heave a great sigh.) The earliest citation I could track down illustrates the adjectival sense:

And in the background, on a much less lavish scale, is LBS communications, which doesn't own its own stations but provides a lucrative stream of 'kidult' — children, teenager and young adult — programming to independents.

— Peter Martin, "Coming Soon: TV's New Boy Network," The Times, August 11 1985

For the record, the earliest usage of the noun I could find was from 1988. Note, too, that there's yet another sense of this word: A child who looks or behaves like an adult. I found an early citation for this sense (1988) but nothing in the past few years, so I'm assuming it's extinct.

A related word is babydult, an adult who still enjoys toys and games designed for young children:

Forget beauty, sophistication or elegance. They are too hard to aspire to, and besides, they are for old people. Today, it's all about being cute until you die. Think of celebrity heroines like Rosie O'Donnell, who frequents McDonald's for the Happy Meal toys, the baby-voiced Victoria Jackson of Saturday Night Live, and 40-year-old babydult Heather Locklear, who was recently observed wheeling Barbie luggage through the L.A. airport. Given Locklear's strong physical resemblance to the doll, the vision must have been like Airport Barbie come to life.

— Karen von Hahn, "Noticed: Babydult," The Globe and Mail, September 14, 2002

Related Words:

adultescent

boomeranger

downager

hand-me-up

kipper

lad lit

lad mag

middle youth

middlescence

NEET

parachute kids

quarterlife crisis

rejuvenile

thresholder

waithood

Categories:

Aging and Death

People