Word: thirteener Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From thirteen + -er (suffix denoting people characterized by something, or people or things to which certain measurements or numbers apply). Pronunciation: /θɜːˈtiːnə/, /θɜɹˈtinəɹ/ 1. A child who is thirteen years old. 2. A member of the 13th Gen; a Generation Xer or Gen-Xer. Labels: dated Example: Boomers played cassettes in their cars and popularized FM radio. Thirteeners love their compact disks. Today's electronics industry is abuzz with talk of the new digital technology that awaits Millennial teenagers. Example: Raise the tough issues and questions that Thirteeners struggle with in the real world. […] The speaker should be transparent about his or her own life struggles and problems. This creates credibility and helps Thirteeners identify their own problems. 3. The last playing card of a suit left after the other twelve have been played. Labels: especially Example: At last they were all chosen [for the watch] but me; and it was the chief mate's next turn to choose; though there could be little choosing in my case since I was a thirteener, and must, whether or not, go over to the next column, like the odd figure you carry along when you do a sum in addition. Example: [T]he following description of a thorough-going College Whist-player is too good to lose. […] How he used to bring out forgotten thirteeners at the end of the hand! And how the majesty of your kings and queens was forced to bow down before his dirty little sixes and sevens! 4. A hit for thirteen runs. Example: [A. C.] King once hit a "thirteener" in a match on the school ground. Probably the ball got lost for a minute or two in long grass, or perhaps it was badly overthrown. But, however it happened, there stands the score in the official book, a "13." clearly got in one fell swoop by the hard-hitting King. 5. A coin worth thirteenpence, especially an Irish shilling (as contrasted with a British shilling which was worth twelvepence). Labels: dated Example: Upon their return from Ireland, vvhere they collected ſome thirteeners for vvhich they had not given the intrinſic value, ſhillings, they made their appearance at Tenby, in Pembrokeſhire, on a pretended tour of pleaſure. Example: ["]A gintleman once said to me: 'Here, Pat, yer sowl, you look hungry. Here's a thirteener for yez; go and get drunk wid it.' Och, no, your honour, he wasn't an Irish gentleman; it was afther mocking me he was, God save him." […] On my asking the boy if he felt hurt at the mockery, he answered, slily, with all his air of simplicity, "Sure, thin, wasn't there the shillin'! For it was a shillin' he gave me, glory be to God. No, I niver heard it called a thirteener before, but mother has.["] 6. A thirteen-syllable line or series of lines in a poem. Example: [T]he peculiar Latin thir'''teener so popular in the Middle Ages, and best known by the lines attributed to Mapes—Meum est propositum in taberna mori [My purpose is to die in a tavern]. Example: By the third decade of the eighteenth century, the syllabic line that really threatened to stay was an uncouth thing of thirteen syllables (counting the obligative feminine terminal), with a caesura after the seventh syllable: […] The order of the stresses in the thirteener went in jumps and jolts and varied from line to line. The only rule (followed only by purists) was that the seventh, caesural, syllable must bear a beat. 7. A mountain rising to more than 13,000 feet (about 4,000 metres) but less than 14,000 feet above mean sea level. Labels: US Example: There are six summits in Colorado above thirteen thousand feet named "Grizzly." Four of them are in the highest two hundred summits. This one was once rated a Fourteener, but new surveys demoted it so that it is now the highest Thirteener. Example: Few who venture into this region know that the area is a superb place to go after thirteener ski descents.