tensomething

English

Alternative forms

• ten-something

Etymology

From ten +‎ -something.

Noun

tensomething (plural tensomethings)

1. A person whose age is between 10 and 19 (inclusive).
   • 1991 October, Premiere‎^[1]:

     Marshall Herskovitz, having a crack at working with tensomethings.

   • 1992 July 27, New York, volume 25, number 29, page 11:

     Some of the media—a rubbery term that included Dan Rather as well as CBS electricians, the New York Times, and the tensomethings of the Children’s Express—were circling the Garden last week for the same reason that Ailes was on hand.

   • 1993, Entrepreneur, page 152:

     If you’re looking to cash in on a market that’s hot, look to the tensomethings.

   • 1996, Television Quarterly: The Journal of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, volume XXVIII, number 3, page 4:

     Indeed what do the tensomethings, who might be watching the show at that hour, make of jokes like Joey telling Chandler that his uncle Sal has a really big tongue.

   • 1997, Ian Shoales, Not Wet et : (I Gotta Go V. 2.00): An Anthology of Commentary (1982-1996), 2.13.61, →ISBN, page 98:

     Otherwise, we’ll see today’s tensomethings wistfully hefting cold ones in tomorrow’s virtual reality, trying to remember the names of the babes from Baywatch: Snoopy? Clarabelle? Sharona? Tonya? Lorena? Heidi?

   • 2007, Murray Pomerance, John Sakeris, editors, Popping Culture, 4th edition, Pearson Education, →ISBN, page 166:

     Is Verhoeven juvenile enough for today’s tensomethings?

Numeral

tensomething

1. Any whole number between 10 and 19, inclusive.
   • 1993 March 17, ees...@dct.ac.uk, “Newsgroups: uk.misc”, in uk.misc (Usenet):

     > 1) is everybody reading uk.misc twentysomething? / Well, I'm tensomething (nineteen :-)

   • 1993 May 11, CHRISTIAN D. ARMOUR, “Ridiculous Theory #1”, in alt.geek (Usenet):

     Similarly, most true geeks rarely watch television and very rarely watch movies (the last movie I saw in a theater was The Empire Strikes Back way back when I was tensomething).

   • 1994, Gary Burns, “How Music Video Has Changed, and How It Has Not Changed: 1991 vs. 1985”, in Popular Music and Society, volume 18, →DOI, page 67:

     Now that MTV is tensomething, it is apposite to consider whether music video has lived up to its initial billing as a revolutionary new aesthetic phenomenon.

   • 1996 May 8, Theron Stanford, “Chicken lady”, in alt.folklore.urban‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 2024-02-19:

     This poster, as well as previous ones, labors under the idea that there is just *one* Chinatown in SF. While it is true that there is a section of the city known as Chinatown with the requisite [to the uninitiated] foreign smells, narrow lanes, discount stores, and restaurants, there are many Chinese enclaves scattered throughout the city, including one centered around Clement and the twentysomething avenues, and one centered around Irving/Judah and the tensomething avenues [but I don't have a map handy and could be numerically off on either].

   • 1998 October 5, ife...@daten-kontor.hu, “The legend of the Varese quote debunked”, in alt.fan.frank-zappa (Usenet):

     On page 10 of the book Russo shows the liner notes from the notorious EMS 401 album which Zappa purchased at the age of tensomething.

Adjective

tensomething (not comparable)

1. Aged between 10 and 19, inclusive.
   • 1991 July 15, Blue [pseudonym], “Miss Jones”, in Variety and Daily Variety Television Reviews, volume 17 (1991–1992), New York, N.Y., London: Garland Publishing, Inc., published 1994, →ISBN, column 4:

     […] Jones’ tensomething son is all sweetness and light, emotionally supporting his mother as she goes through the difficult first few days of a new job.

   • 1992, Newsmakers, page 389:

     Time magazine paid tribute by noting that the show was “catching on with the tensomething crowd […]

   • 1996, TLA Film and Video Guide, 1996-1997, →ISBN:

     Sean Nelson delivers a disturbing portrayal as Fresh, a tensomething chess wizard (and a hardened drug runner) who is teetering on the edge of a life of crime.