Millennialisms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A philosophy or set of beliefs associated with a generation that commonly expresses specific values or cultural perspectives
2. A manifestation of trends or ideologies that define the attitudes of individuals born during a particular period
3. An advocacy or set of principles that reflects the experiences and aspirations of a generation often marked by significant social change

Etymology: The base of this word is "mille," Latin for "thousand," and "annus," meaning "year." Combined, they gave the English "millennium," a span of a thousand years. "Millennialism" builds on that by adding the suffix "-ism," a common way to name a doctrine or belief system. Originally it referred to the religious belief that a thousand-year period of peace or divine rule would follow a major turning point in history. The generational sense grew from the adjective "millennial," which described people coming of age around the turn of the millennium. Its meaning shifted from a time period to a group of people, and then to the outlook attributed to that group. That attribution is a broad label, since the outlook is a set of cultural tendencies people associate with the generation rather than a formal doctrine. The plural "millennialisms" is simply the form used when speaking of several such sets of beliefs or perspectives, or of more than one usage of the term.