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Origin and history of adolescent

adolescent(n.)

mid-15c., "youth, young person, one who is growing up," from French adolescent (15c.) or directly from Latin adolescentem/adulescentem (nominative adolescens/adulescens) "young man or woman, a youth," noun use of an adjective meaning "growing, near maturity, youthful." The adjective is the present participle of adolescere "grow up, come to maturity, ripen," from ad "to" (see ad-) + alescere "be nourished," hence, "increase, grow up" (inchoative of alere "to nourish," from a suffixed form of PIE root *al- (2) "to grow, nourish").

Adolesce was a back-formed verb used early 20c. (OED quotes H.G. Wells, G.B. Shaw, Louis MacNeice), but it seems not to have grown.

also from mid-15c.

adolescent(adj.)

1785, "growing toward maturity," from Latin adolescentem/adulescentem (nominative adolescens/adulescens) "growing, near maturity, youthful," present participle of adolescere "grow up, come to maturity, ripen" (see adolescent (n.)).

also from 1785

Entries linking to adolescent

adolescence(n.)

"the age following childhood, the age of growing" (roughly the period from the 15th to the 21st year; or age 14 to 25 in males, 12 to 21 in females), early 15c., from Old French adolescence (13c.), from Latin adolescentia/adulescentia "youth, youthful people collectively," abstract noun from adulescentem "growing, youthful" (see adolescent (n.)). Adolescency (late 14c.) is slightly earlier.

ad-

word-forming element expressing direction toward or in addition to, from Latin ad "to, toward" in space or time; "with regard to, in relation to," as a prefix, sometimes merely emphatic, from PIE root *ad- "to, near, at."

Simplified to a- before sc-, sp- and st-; modified to ac- before many consonants and then re-spelled af-, ag-, al-, etc., in conformity with the following consonant (as in affection, aggression). Also compare ap- (1).

In Old French, reduced to a- in all cases (an evolution already underway in Merovingian Latin), but French refashioned its written forms on the Latin model in 14c., and English did likewise 15c. in words it had picked up from Old French. In many cases pronunciation followed the shift.

Over-correction at the end of the Middle Ages in French and then English "restored" the -d- or a doubled consonant to some words that never had it (accursed, afford). The process went further in England than in France (where the vernacular sometimes resisted the pedantic), resulting in English adjourn, advance, address, advertisement (Modern French ajourner, avancer, adresser, avertissement). In modern word-formation sometimes ad- and ab- are regarded as opposites, but this was not in classical Latin.

*al-(2)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to grow, nourish."

It might form all or part of: abolish; adolescent; adult; alderman; aliment; alimony; Alma; alma mater; alt (2) "high tone;" alti-; altimeter; altitude; alto; alumnus; auld; coalesce; elder (adj., n.1); eldest; Eldred; enhance; exalt; haught; haughty; hautboy; hawser; oboe; old; proletarian; proliferation; prolific; world.

It might also be the source of: Greek aldaino "make grow, strengthen," althein, althainein "to get well;" Latin alere "to feed, nourish, suckle; bring up, increase," altus "high," literally "grown tall," almus "nurturing, nourishing," alumnus "fosterling, step-child;" Gothic alþeis, Dutch oud, German alt "old;" Gothic alan "to grow up," Old Norse ala "to nourish;" Old Irish alim "I nourish."