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Origin and history of infancy

infancy(n.)

late 14c., "condition of babyhood," also "childhood, youth," from Anglo-French enfaunce and directly from Latin infantia "early childhood," from infantem "young child," literally "one unable to speak" (see infant). Restriction to the earliest months of life is a return to the etymological sense of the word but is a recent development in English. In old legal language it meant "condition of being a minor" and could mean any age up to 21.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to infancy

infant(n.)

late 14c., infant, infaunt, "a child," also especially "child during earliest period of life, a newborn" (sometimes meaning a fetus), from Latin infantem (nominative infans) "young child, babe in arms," noun use of adjective meaning "not able to speak," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + fans, present participle of fari "to speak," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say." As an adjective in English, 1580s, from the noun.

The Romans extended the sense of Latin infans to include older children, hence French enfant "child," Italian fanciullo, fanciulla. In English the word formerly also had the wider sense of "child" (commonly reckoned as up to age 7). The common Germanic words for "child" (represented in English by bairn and child) also are sense extensions of words that originally must have meant "newborn."

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    discrepancy
    "variance or contrariety, especially of facts or sentiments," mid-15c. (discrepauns, discrepance), from Latin discrepantia "discordance, discrepancy," from discrepantem (nominative discrepans), present participle of discrepare "sound differently, differ," from dis- "apart, off" (
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