Etymologically
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adolescent

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Pronunciation

  • /ˌæd.əˈlɛs.ənt/[1]

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

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