precocious

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɹəˈkəʊʃəs/^[1]

Etymology

It was formed from Latin praecox (“ripening early, premature”) (stem praecoc-)^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and the suffix -ous.^[3][4][6] Praecox is from praecoquere “to ripen fully”,^[2][3] from prae- “before” and coquere “to cook, ripen”.^[2][3][4][5] It is related to cook.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a plant, flowering or fruiting early, especially blossoming before the leaves appear (1650).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The botanical sense came first.^[4][7] From the 1670s the word was applied figuratively to people who develop some faculty unusually early,^[4][7] and this is now its main sense, especially of children.^[2][5][6] Etymonline suggests the obsolete princock “pert boy” may be a folk alteration of Latin praecox.^[4]

Timeline

• 1640 – precocity.^[3]
• 1650 – of plants, early-flowering.^[7][3][5]
• 1672 – indicating premature development.^[7]
• 1678 – of persons, developed early.^[7][4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Showing unusually early development or maturity, especially in mental ability, as a precocious child.
2. Happening unusually early.
3. (botany) Flowering before the leaves appear.

Word family

• precociously
• precociousness
• precocity

Related words

• apricot
• cook

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press