KIDULT

adjective and noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society) In US media slang, adjective: Of a television programme or other piece of entertainment: designed to appeal to all age groups; intended as 'family viewing'. noun: A piece of entertainment designed to appeal to children and adults equally. Also, a person who likes this kind of entertainment; an adult with immature tastes and interests. Etymology: Formed by telescoping kid and adult to make a blend. History and Usage: The word was coined in the US as long ago as the late fifties to refer to the kind of adventure series that naturally appeals to a young audience but can be so designed as to attract a cult following among older viewers, too. The adjective remained popular with US television reviewers throughout the sixties and seventies (often with the implication that the programme so described was truly appealing to neither group, but fell between two stools), but only acquired any currency outside the US towards the end of the seventies. During the late eighties the noun acquired the secondary sense of the 'typical' viewer of kidult entertainment. Not a film for either children or adults, but for 'that new, true-blue American of the electronic age, the kidult, who may be 8, 18, 38 or 80'. New York Times 29 Jan. 1989, section 2, p. 30