Mamil
Mamil[1] or MAMIL[2] (an acronym standing for "middle-aged man in lycra".[3]) is a middle aged man who rides an expensive racing bicycle[1] for leisure, wearing professional style body-hugging bicycle jerseys and bicycle shorts.[2]
The word was reportedly coined by British marketing research firm Mintel in 2010.[4] It gained further popularity in the United Kingdom with the success of Bradley Wiggins in the 2012 Tour de France and at the 2012 Summer Olympics[4]
Buying an expensive road bicycle has been described as a more healthy response to a midlife crisis than buying an expensive sports car.[5][6]
In Australia the popularity of cycling with middle-aged men wearing lycra has been described as associated with the Tour Down Under and the 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans.[7] The former Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott has been described as a "mamil".[8] This rise in popularity has been echoed in the United Kingdom where Olympic, Tour de France, and UCI World Championships victories in recent years have spurred interest.[9]
References
- 1 2 Dominic Casciani (14 August 2010). "Rise of the Mamils (middle-aged men in lycra)". BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- 1 2 Wallace, Wade (2 September 2012). "Middle Aged Men In Lycra". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ↑ "Mamil". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- 1 2 Matt Seaton (11 September 2012). "The humble Mamil: why we need 'middle-aged men in Lycra'". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ↑ Jennifer Parker (16 November 2013). "In the Land of the Mamils: Where Men Are Men and Bikes Are a Semester at Yale". Bloomberg Television. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
- ↑ "Mamil at the crack of dawn". The Brunei Times. 19 October 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ↑ Verity Edwards (21 January 2012). "A new species of mamil hits the road". The Australian (News Corp Australia). Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ↑ Huynh, Kim (16 October 2013). "Pest or indigenous species, the mamil abounds". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ↑ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/alexander_wolff/08/03/british-cycling-revolution/index.html
External links
Look up MAMIL in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Catherine Bennett in The Observer: Modern tribes: the midlife cycling obsessive
- MAMIL in Oxforddictionaries (added 2014) : http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/fr/definition/anglais/MAMIL