adult

Forms

adult m or n (feminine singular adultă, masculine plural adulți, feminine/neuter plural adulte)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French adulte, with Latin adultus (“grown up”) as a second source, a neologism of the 19th century.^[2][3][4][1] MDA2 adds Italian adulto.^[5] The Latin word is the past participle of adolēscō (“to grow up”), formed on alō (“to nourish, raise”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR, after Tiktin, dates the first record to about 1832, in Cornelli, with the sense “(of an organism or a person) grown to maturity”.^[2][4] MDA2 and the DA start with Grecescu's flora of Romania of 1898, where it is said of a plant.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word was first a learned adjective for a fully grown organism, and soon a noun for a grown person, as in școală de adulți “school for adults”.^[6][7] Recent press use adds pentru adulți “for adults”, of erotic films and products, after French réservé aux adultes.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – in Cornelli, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary has adultŭ “grown up”.^[9]
• 1898 – plantă adultă in Grecescu's flora.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of an organism: fully grown, mature, able to reproduce.^[3][5][1]

Noun

1. An adult, a person past adolescence, roughly between 17–18 and 50 years of age.^[3][1]

Related words

• adolescent
• aliment

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. adult
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 15
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. adult
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 19
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. adult
7. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 31
8. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. adult
9. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 21