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adulescentia

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word adulescentia

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*h₂el-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin adulescens
Latin adulescentia

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [a.dʊ.ɫeːsˈkɛn.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [a.du.leʃˈʃɛn.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

adulēscentia f (genitive adulēscentiae); first declension[1] It is also spelled adolēscentia.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin adulēscēns (“young person”) + -ia.[2][3][1] The noun is the present participle of adolēscō (“to grow up”), which de Vaan lists with alō (“to nourish”), from Proto-Italic *ale/o- (“to feed”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-, cognate with Old Irish ailid (“feeds, raises”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽 (alan, “to grow up”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Bacchides: fēcī ego istaec itidem in adulēscentiā, “I did the same things in my youth”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Adulēscentia is the time of life of the adulēscēns, which Lewis & Short put between boyhood and full manhood, from about the fifteenth to the thirtieth year.[2][5] It also means youthfulness, often with the notion of youth's impulsiveness (Rhetorica ad Herennium), and, as if personified or collectively, youth and young people: Terence's “I never thought that fault belonged to youth”.[2]

English adolescence (early 15th century) came through Old French from the Latin.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: in adulēscentiā.[2][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of youth as a whole.[2][7]
  • early 15th century – English adolescence, through Old French.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. youth, young manhood (roughly from 15 to 30).[2][5][1]
  2. Youthfulness; youthful impulsiveness.[2]
  3. Young people, the young.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Adulescentia.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/adulescentia. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·