What are we going to call them?

[Alan]

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Hi,

The younger members of our society are called what? We have a variety of appellations. The most popular these days and personally I don't like it, is the word 'kids'. Technically a kid is the young of the goat. But we talk about school kids, my kid brother, kids these days don't know they're born, they have three kids and are expecting a fourth, new kids on the block and so on. And then of course the word 'kid' starts popping up all over the place: to treat someone with kid gloves means to treat them very carefully so as not to offend, who are you kidding? means who are you trying to fool? Just kidding means I am only joking. But that's what happens when you start talking about words. One thing leads to another and I have ended up straying from the point and not sticking to my subject. Back to these kids then. The obvious word is child/children. For some reason this word rarely gets used when we're talking about the younger generation (or in my case, the youngest generation). 'Young people' is another expression but this sounds a bit patronising with the implication that they're not really proper people. 'Youngsters' is a bit more friendly. Of course when they get older, they are referred to as 'teenagers' and collectively 'youth'. That word can also describe one individual when it's not exactly definite what age they are. And if you talk about more than one, that is pronounced 'youths'. But enough, I'm going to talk about child and children, childhood and childlike. It's a unique part of anyone's life. Let's not try to male it anything else.
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English as a Second Language
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[Our Tort System]

Hi Alan,

I didn't know that a kid is the young of the goat. It's funny how it came to mean "a child".
By the way, I've heard some people refer to children as "youngins". Is it a standard term?
I'm asking because I couldn't find it in most reputable dictionaries I've looked.

Thanks.
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[Alan]

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Hi OTS,

Possibly this is 'young'uns' - a corruption of 'young ones'. I have certainly heard it.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms