Generation (from the Latin generāre, meaning "to beget"), also known as procreation in biological sciences, is the act of producing offspring.
In kinship terminology it is a structural term designating the parent-child relationship. The term is also often used synonymously with cohort in social science, even though some researchers believe that this usage is misleading; under this formulation the term means "people within a delineated population who experience the same significant event within a given period of time." Generation in this sense of birth cohort is widely used in popular culture, and has been the basis for much social analysis.
Read more about Generation: Familial Generation, Social Generation, Other Generations
Famous quotes containing the word generation:
“Progress is the injustice each generation commits with regard to its predecessors.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)
“I call it our collective inheritance of isolation. We inherit isolation in the bones of our lives. It is passed on to us as sure as the shape of our noses and the length of our legs. When we are young, we are taught to keep to ourselves for reasons we may not yet understand. As we grow up we become the “men who never cry” and the “women who never complain.” We become another generation of people expected not to bother others with our problems.”
—Paula C. Lowe (20th century)
“You are truly the generation in the middle! You have at once aging parents as well as maturing children to cope with, and you are not granted the deference accorded age, or the indulgence given the young.”
—Helene S. Arnstein (20th century)