adulto

Forms

adulto (feminine adulta, masculine plural adultos, feminine plural adultas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin adultus (“grown up, full-grown”), the past participle of adolēscō (“to grow up”), whose present participle gave adolescente.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Corominas dated the Spanish word to about 1560,^[2][3] but the DEMel and the HSMS find it in texts of the late 14th century, and the DTME dates it from 1385.^[6][7][8] The French word adulte was borrowed from the same Latin participle, first in an older form in 1394 and in its present form in the 16th century.^[9]

De Vaan lists both Latin words among the derivatives of alō (“to suckle, nourish”), from Proto-Italic *alō (“to feed”).^[10] Wiktionary traces this verb to Proto-Indo-European *h₂életi (“to grow, nourish”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest records are the feminine adulta in Juan Fernández de Heredia's Orosius (second half of the 14th century) and adulto in a Lucas de Tuy text dated before 1385.^[6][7] In 1463 Juan de Lucena uses it of age in Vida beata: Dionysius's daughters shaved him until they vinieron después en adulta edat “later came to adult age”, after which he trusted them less.^[11] The sense was “grown up”, of a person who has finished growing.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In 1611 Covarrubias divided a man's life into three ages, the growing one, la adulta, que es varón perfeto “the adult, when he is a complete man”, and old age.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) defined the word as grown and come to a full, robust age, and added a figurative use for grown things, living or not, which it called more frequent in poetry.^[12]

The Academy's dictionaries of 1770, 1817 and 1843 defined adulto as one who is in adolescence,^[13][14][15] while Domínguez in 1846 used it for the period between puberty and old age, and also of plants and animals that have reached their full development.^[16] The 1884 edition gave the etymology, the sense “come to the end of adolescence”, the animal and plant use and a figurative one, lenguas adultas “mature languages”.^[17] The DLE now adds a zoological sense, an animal capable of reproducing.^[4]

In much of Latin America adulto mayor is a euphemism for a person over sixty, and in Chile adulto joven is a mature person who keeps youthful habits.^[18]

Timeline

• Second half of the 14th century – adulta in Juan Fernández de Heredia's Orosius.^[6]
• Before 1385 – adulto in a Lucas de Tuy text, the first record of the masculine.^[6][7]
• 1463 – Juan de Lucena writes adulta edat “adult age” in Vida beata.^[11]
• c. 1560 – the date Corominas gives for the first record.^[2][3]
• 1575 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico: ya eres adulta y no eres niña “you are a grown woman now, not a girl”.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias names la adulta as the second of man's three ages.^[11]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the word and its figurative, mainly poetic use.^[12]
• 1770 – the Academy defines it as being in adolescence, a definition kept until 1843.^[13][15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the senses for animals and plants.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a living being: having reached full growth or development; adult, grown-up: Un gato adulto duerme muchas horas.^[4][1]
2. Having reached a certain degree of perfection; mature, experienced: una literatura adulta.^[4][20]
3. (zoology) Of an animal: fully able to reproduce.^[4][8]

Noun

1. An adult, a person who has reached adult age: Los adultos pagan la entrada completa.^[4][1][8]
2. (Latin America) adulto mayor: an elderly person, over sixty (a euphemism).^[18]

Word family

• adultez

Related words

• adolescente
• adolescencia
• Latin adultus
• French adulte

Usage notes

Edad adulta “adult age” is a set phrase.^[4][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 57
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. adolescente
4. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. adulto
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. adulto
6. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
7. ^ a b c Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. adulto
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. adulto
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 96
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 80
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 21
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 15
16. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 44
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 24
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. adulto
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. adulto
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. adulto