youngster

Etymology

It is formed from English young + -ster,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which the Shorter Oxford says was suggested by younker,^[4] a word from Middle Dutch jonckher (“young nobleman”).^[3] The OED compares it with that word and with the earlier youngling, from Old English geongling,^[2][3] and Klein takes it as the same word with the new suffix in place of the older -ling.^[6] The adjective goes back to geong, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz.^[3][7] The suffix was originally feminine, Old English -estre, and came to form agent nouns for either sex.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young adult, especially a young man, at first sometimes a lively or vigorous one, and also a novice: 1577, in a translation by T. Kendall.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1589,^[8] Dictionary.com to 1580–90 and Etymonline to the 1580s.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

From 1608 a youngster was a junior member of a ship's crew, typically a boy or young man, and later also a junior officer in the army or navy;^[2][4] this belongs to a wider pattern, from the early 17th century, of applying words for young people to the armed forces.^[9] From 1633 the word was used for a child, especially a boy,^[2] which the Shorter Oxford dates to the mid-18th century;^[4] from 1776 it also meant a young animal, especially a young horse.^[2][3][10] The Shorter Oxford calls the word now chiefly colloquial.^[4] In Suffolk dialect youngster was once an adjective, the younger of two, as in "youngster Parker" for a younger brother.^[11]

Timeline

• 1577 – a young man; a youth.^[2]
• 1608 – a junior member of a ship's crew.^[2]
• 1633 – a child, especially a boy.^[2]
• 1776 – a young animal, especially a horse.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young person; a child or a youth: The youngsters raced each other across the field.^[10][8][2]
2. A young animal, especially a young horse.^[10][2][3]
3. (informal) A junior member of a ship's crew, or a junior officer.^[2][4]

Related words

• young
• youngling
• younker
• youth

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ 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)