adolescent

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Middle French adolescent,^[2][3][4] recorded in Old French from the 13th century,^[2] or comes directly from its source, Latin adolēscēns (“young man or woman, youth”) (also adulēscēns),^[2][5][3] a noun use of the present participle of adolēscō (“to grow up, come to maturity”).^[2][5][6] The adjective was taken from the Latin participle as well.^[2][5] The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to”) and alēscō (“to grow up, be nourished”), the inchoative of alō (“to nourish”),^[6][2][7][8] from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *al- (“to grow, nourish”).^[5][6] The past participle of the same verb, adultus (“grown”), gave English adult,^[8][9][10] and Merriam-Webster's “Book of Word Histories” notes that the native word old goes back to a Germanic participle from the same Indo-European root.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young person who is growing up, a youth: the noun is first recorded about 1440, in an English translation of Palladius on agriculture, where it could also be used of a young animal.^[2][11] Etymonline dates the noun to the mid-15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries disagree on the date of the adjective.^[2][5][8] The OED finds it from 1481, in Caxton's translation of Cicero's De Senectute, meaning "in the age of adolescence",^[2][11] and since 1704 of an emotion or quality typical of that age.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to 1785, "growing toward maturity",^[5] and Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of English put it only at the end of the 18th century.^[8][12] The informal sense "immature, childish", used of grown people, is recorded in current dictionaries.^[13][3] In the early 20th century the back-formation adolesce, to pass through adolescence, was used by H. G. Wells, Shaw and Louis MacNeice, but it did not catch on.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – noun, a young person, a youth; also a young animal.^[2]
• 1481 – adjective, in the age of adolescence.^[2][11]
• 1704 – of an emotion or quality, typical of adolescence.^[2]
• 1785 – adjective, growing toward maturity (Etymonline's date).^[5]
• early 20th century – the back-formed verb adolesce.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young person who is passing from childhood to adulthood; a teenager: The clinic runs a support group for adolescents.^[13][3][2]

Adjective

1. Going through, or relating to, adolescence: adolescent boys.^[13][3][6]
2. Typical of adolescence or of adolescents: adolescent restlessness.^[3][2]
3. (informal) Behaving in an immature way; puerile: Their adolescent pranks embarrassed the whole office.^[13][3]

Word family

• adolescently
• postadolescent
• subadolescent
• preadolescent

Related words

• adolescence
• adult
• old
• aliment
• alimony
• alimentary

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins