Adolescent
/ˌæd.əˈles.ənt/noun
A young person who is developing from a child into an adult.
Did you know?Adolescent comes from Latin adolescere, and its hidden engine is the same root that gave us words for nourishing and increasing—so the word itself is about growth as a process of being fed into becoming.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*al-
“to grow, nourish”
Latin
Latin
adolescere
“to grow up, come to maturity”
Latin
Latin
adulescens / adolescens
“a young person; one growing to maturity”
14th Century
English
adolescent
“young person; one in the process of growing up”
Modern English
English
adolescent
“a teenager or young person transitioning to adulthood”