juvenil

Forms

juvenil m or f (masculine and feminine plural juveniles)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin iuvenīlis (“youthful”), formed from iuvenis (“young”) with the suffix -īlis.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin noun is also the source of the semi-learned joven, which, Corominas notes, was a rare word before the 17th century, when mozo was the usual one.^[2][3]

The same Latin adjective was borrowed as French juvénile (first about 1112), Italian giovanile, Portuguese juvenil and Catalan juvenil.^[6][7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest texts in the CDH are the Aragonese translations made for Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396), with audacia juuenil “youthful daring” in the Historia troyana and the forms jouenil and iouenil in his Plutarch and Thucydides.^[10] The DCECH and the BDELC first record it about 1440, in Juan de Mena.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept the Latin sense “of or belonging to youth”, often in phrases such as edad juvenil and furor juvenil, which the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes.^[11] Alonso de Palencia (1490) still glossed Latin juvenilis with a phrase, “what belongs to the acts of the young”.^[2] The Academy's 2001 edition added a biological sense, the stage of development just before the adult one, and modern sport uses it for an age category and its players, between cadet and junior.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – juuenil, jouenil and iouenil in the translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia.^[10]
• c. 1440 – Juan de Mena, the first record in the DCECH and the BDELC.^[2][3]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses iuuenilis as “a thing of young men”.^[15]
• 1639 – first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as “what belongs to youth”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “from Latin iuvenilis”.^[17]
• 2001 – the Academy adds the biological sense.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to youth; juvenile: una revista juvenil.^[4][1]
2. Youthful, having the energy or look of the young: A sus setenta años conserva una risa juvenil.^[14][1]
3. (biology) Of the stage of development just before the adult one.^[12]
4. (sports) Of the age category between cadet and junior, roughly 15 to 18 years.^[13][14][1]

Noun

1. (sports) A player in the youth category.^[13][14]

Related words

• joven
• jovenzuelo
• juventud
• rejuvenecer
• Latin iuvenis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 529
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. joven
4. ^ a b 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. juvenil
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iuuenīlis
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. juvénile
7. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 405
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. juvenil
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. juvenil
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. juvenil
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 338
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. juvenil
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. juvenil
14. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. juvenil
15. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. juvenil
16. ^ 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. juvenil
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 622