Teen
/tiːn/noun
A person aged 13 through 19; also used informally as an adjective meaning relating to that age group.
Did you know?The word comes straight from the old English numeral system, where the teen in thirteen, fourteen, and so on meant “ten more,” not a separate life stage at all.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dekm̥
“ten”
Old English
OE
tīen
“ten”
Old English
OE
-tīene
“ten more; forming the teens in compound numerals”
Middle English
ME
-teen
“suffix in numbers from thirteen to nineteen”
Modern English
English
teen
“a person in the age range 13–19”