Difference between revisions of "Adolescents - adolescence - adolescency"
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*'''Adolescence''' is the general state of being through which boys and girls must pass on their way to being men and women. | *'''Adolescence''' is the general state of being through which boys and girls must pass on their way to being men and women. | ||
*The rarer - but useful - '''adolescency''' is defined by ''[[OED]]'' as "The quality or state of being adolescent, or in the growing age. <u>Properly distinguished</u> from ADOLESCENCE, as youthfulness is from youth, as in 'a protracted adolescence,' but 'evidences of adolescency'" (AWE's underlining). | *The rarer - but useful - '''adolescency''' is defined by ''[[OED]]'' as "The quality or state of being adolescent, or in the growing age. <u>Properly distinguished</u> from ADOLESCENCE, as youthfulness is from youth, as in 'a protracted adolescence,' but 'evidences of adolescency'" (AWE's underlining). | ||
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| + | AWE has a [[-nce - -nts (Table)|Table collecting some of the words that fall into this pattern]][[Category:-nce - -nts]]. | ||
[[Category:-nce - -nts]] | [[Category:-nce - -nts]] | ||
Revision as of 17:21, 11 June 2010
Adolescence and adolescents sound the same, except in the most careful speech. Both (and rgeir related forms) are derived from the same root, the Latin adolescere - the verb of which adult was the past participle. The verbal suffix -escere (giving the adjective form -escent) means 'growing', 'becoming'; 'altering its state towards'.
- Adolescent can be either an adjective or a noun.
- the adjective adolescent means 'growing up'. It is used in English to refer specifically to the time between the beginning of puberty and full adulthood. It can be used to mean 'immature', as in a reprimand to a teenager behaving childishly, or a [young] adult forgetting his dignity: "that's so adolescent - you should be ashamed of yourself."
- The noun 'an adolescent' means a person of that age. Colloquially, a term often used is 'teenager'. When there is more than one, they are adolescents (or teenagers).
- Adolescence is the general state of being through which boys and girls must pass on their way to being men and women.
- The rarer - but useful - adolescency is defined by OED as "The quality or state of being adolescent, or in the growing age. Properly distinguished from ADOLESCENCE, as youthfulness is from youth, as in 'a protracted adolescence,' but 'evidences of adolescency'" (AWE's underlining).
AWE has a Table collecting some of the words that fall into this pattern.
