juventud

Forms

juventud f (plural juventudes)^[1] Old Spanish wrote iuuentut and juuentut (13th century), iouentud (Vidal Mayor), and both juventud and joventud (Juan Ruiz).^[2][3] Joventud is still recorded in the speech of Salamanca.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin iuventūs (“youth”), a learned word that became common long before joven.^[2][5][6][7] García de Diego also calls it a learned word, beside an older form Old Spanish joventud.^[4] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited through Old Spanish iuuentut.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese juventude, which Nascentes calls semi-learned, Catalan joventut, Galician xuventude, Asturian xuventú and Italian gioventù.^[8][9][1]

The Latin noun is formed from iuvenis (“young”) with the abstract suffix -tūs, and Wiktionary compares Proto-Celtic *yuwantūts.^[10][1] De Vaan derives the adjective from Proto-Indo-European *h₂iu-h₁en-, “who possesses vital force”, hence “young”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Almerich's La fazienda de Ultra Mar (about 1200, in a 13th-century manuscript): que yo loar me pueda de ti en my veiez assy cuemo me loé en my iuventud “that I may take pride in you in my old age as I did in my youth”.^[3][12][13] Corominas's first record is the Libro de Apolonio, where a young man's death is mourned: todos ouieron duelo de la su juuentut.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word named the age of youth, as in the Judizios de las estrellas, where an astrological house signifies iuuentut between childhood and old age.^[3][14] The everyday word for a young person, however, was mozo until the Golden Age.^[2] Covarrubias explained the Latin word fancifully, from iuvare “to help”, because that age is best fitted for work.^[15] Autoridades defined it as the age from fourteen to twenty-one, and also as young people collectively.^[16]

In 1855 Baralt objected to using juventud for every sense of French jeunesse, since for Spaniards it meant chiefly youthful age.^[17] The modern dictionary adds the early stage of anything (la juventud del universo), vigour and freshness, and in the plural the youth wing of a party or a religious body.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has iuventud (13th-century manuscript).^[3][12]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio has juuentut.^[3][2]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor has iouentud.^[3]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses both juventud and joventud.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary renders iuventus as the age of mancebía.^[7]
• 1602 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico: la juventud mexicana.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the Latin word from iuvare.^[15]
• 1855 – Baralt criticises its use as an equivalent of French jeunesse.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin iuventus.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. youth: the period of life that comes just before adulthood: En su juventud vivió en Sevilla.^[6][1]
2. The condition of being young.^[6]
3. Young people as a group.^[6][20]
4. The early stage of something.^[6]
5. vigour, energy, freshness.^[6]
6. (in the plural) The youth wing of a political, religious or other organisation.^[6][20]

Related words

• joven
• juvenil
• rejuvenecer
• Latin iuvenis
• Portuguese juventude

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. juventus
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. joven
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. juventud
7. ^ a b 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. juventud
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. juventude
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. joventut
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iuventus
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. juventud
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. juventud
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1019
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 338
17. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 404
18. ^ 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. joventud
19. ^ 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
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. juventud