young

Pronunciation

• IPA: /jʌŋ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English yong, inherited from Old English geong (“youthful, young”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *junga-,^[2] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *yuwn̥kós,^[5][6] a suffixed form of *yeu- (“vital force, youthful vigour”).^[2][4] The same root without the velar suffix gave Latin juvenis (“young”),^[3][6] and the suffixed form is also found in juvencus (“young bull”) and Welsh ieuanc (“young”).^[3][5] Its relatives in Germanic include Dutch jong, German jung and Old Norse ungr.^[2][5][7] Its relatives further afield include Lithuanian jaunas.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In an early stage of life, not old: Old English geong, first recorded about 725 in Beowulf.^[3] The Old English word could also mean recent, new or fresh.^[2] The Middle English spelling yong appears before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “characteristic of or suited to the young” dates from the late 12th century.^[2] From about 1400 the word was used of any thing, concrete or abstract, in the first stage of its existence.^[2] From 1628 it was used of drink that has not been aged,^[8] and since 1678 of newly formed ice.^[8] As a noun, young meant “young people” in Old English and “the offspring of an animal” from the late 15th century.^[2] Youngster is recorded from 1589.^[3] Between about 1830 and 1850 names like Young France and Young Italy were given to republican agitators, and Young England was a faction of young Tory aristocrats.^[2] A young Turk, a young person eager for radical change, comes from the Young Turks who carried out the Ottoman revolution of 1908.^[9] Geologists have used young as a verb since 1934, of a formation that shows its younger side in a given direction.^[10][7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English geong (Beowulf).^[3]
• late 12th century – characteristic of the young.^[2]
• before 1325 – Middle English yong (Cursor Mundi).^[3]
• c. 1400 – of things, in an early stage.^[2]
• late 15th century – noun, the offspring of an animal.^[2]
• 1589 – youngster.^[3]
• 1628 – of drink, not aged.^[8]
• 1934 – geological verb.^[10]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. In an early period of life, growth or development.
2. Recently begun or formed; not far advanced.
3. Belonging to or typical of youth; fresh and vigorous.
4. Lacking experience; immature.
5. The younger of two people with the same name.
6. (geology) At an early stage of a geological cycle.

Noun

1. Young people as a group.
2. The offspring of an animal; a brood.

Word family

• youngness
• youngish
• youngblood
• youngling
• youngster
• young man
• young Turk

Related words

• youth
• juvenile
• junior
• rejuvenate
• younker

Usage notes

RHWU compares young, the general word for anything not yet fully grown, with youthful, which suggests the good qualities of youth such as energy and hope, and juvenile, which may suggest childish faults or refer to the years before legal adulthood.^[11] In the dialects of Scotland and England, young folk meant a newly married couple.^[12]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)