yealing

[ yee-lin ]

noun

, Scot.

1. a person of the same age as oneself.

Word History and Origins

Origin of yealing¹

First recorded in 1720–30; of uncertain origin

More About Yealing

What does yealing mean?

A yealing is someone who is the same age as you.

Yealing is a very rare word that comes from Scottish.

Yealing was the Dictionary.com Word of the Day on April 19, 2019!

Example: I have kith of all ages, but it is with my yealings that I feel most comfortable.

Where does yealing come from?

The first known record of yealing in the English language (of the very few) comes from the 1720s. The etymology of yealing is unclear, but it may come from a blending of the phrase even eilding (eilding means “age” and is related to words like eld and elder).

Scottish poet Robert Burns used yealing in his poem “The Brigs of Ayr,” from his 1787 collection Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect:

“Oh ye, my dear-remember’d ancient yealings, / Were ye but here to share my wounded feelings!”

It seems like Burns is saying that your old friends—the ones who you grew up with and who are the same age as you—are usually the best at commiserating with you and cheering you up. Yealing is a rare word, but it seems like a pretty useful way to refer to people who are the same age as you—and who’ve probably experienced a lot of the same things. Where my yealings at?

Did you know ... ?

What are some synonyms for yealing?

• contemporary
• coeval

What are some words that might share a root or word element with yealing? 

• elder
• duckling
• underling

What are some words that often get used in discussing yealing?

• age
• birthday
• same
• generation

What are some words yealing may be commonly confused with?

• yearling
• yeanling

How is yealing used in real life?

Yealing is so rarely used that it doesn’t even appear in some dictionaries. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start using it. It’s a lot quicker than saying, “My friends who are the same age as me.” But beware when texting your yealings: autocorrect will probably think you’re trying to spell healing.

Try using yealing!

Is yealing used correctly in the following sentence?

Don is just a yealing among the competitors, seeing as how he’s much younger than any of them.