Synonym Etymologies Y

Continuing the look at synonyms through the eyes of the etymologist, this time it is the letter Y and young. This came to English through the Germanic group of languages, Proto-Germanic junga coming from Proto-Indo-European yuwn-ko 'vital force, youthful vigor'. The noun, used to refer to offspring, is first recorded in the 15th century.

Youth is, unsurprisingly, from the same root as 'young'.

Juvenile is from the Latin iuvenilis and iuvenis the latter meaning 'young man'. Note for the Romans a juvenile came after adolescence, thus anything from 21 up to as old as 40.

Junior, as with young, saw the noun, first recorded in 1520, coming from the adjective. Again this is of Latin derivation, where iunior meant 'younger'. Used to mean the younger generation from 1620s, and of lesser standing from 1766, the Proto-Indo-European root is the same as for 'young'.

Adolescent, unlike 'junior' and 'young', had the adjective taken from the noun. Unchanged since coming to English from French, with the same meaning and spelling, and Latin adolescentem meaning 'young man or woman', we can trace it back further to the Proto-Indo-European al 'to grow, nourish'.

Teenage is unrecorded before 1911 when it is first seen in records of Sunday School classes. The 'age' suffix is obvious and it follows a syllable which comes from 'ten'.

Immature is the opposite of mature and shares an origin with it. As an adjective it comes from the verb, itself used for plantlife for most of recorded history. It is traceable back to Proto-Indo-European meh-tu 'ripeness'.

Child comes from Proto-Germanic kiltham, which has given words in many Germanic languages with such meanins as 'womb', 'pregnant', 'litter', 'of gentle birth', and even simply 'girl child'. It has so far proven impossible to trace it back further than Proto-Germanic.

Baby is a diminutive of 'babe', the earlier form of the word. This came from the 13th century word baban, itself imitative of baby talk. Note, the term might mean infant, but related words in other languages have the rather different meaning or 'old woman', such as in the Russian babushka and baba 'peasant woman'.

Progeny came to English in the 14th century from the French progenie. We can trace this back to Proto-Indo-European pro 'forth' and gignere 'produce, beget' and related to gene 'birth, beget'.

Heir came to English from Old French oir and Latin heredem, all from the same root as 'heredity' in the Proto-Indo-European ghe 'to be empty, left behind' and the reason we see words such as the Greek khera 'widow'.

Descendants shares an etymology with 'descend' and the Proto-Indo-European root skand 'jump'.

Successors shares an etymology with 'succeed' in the Proto-Indo-European ked 'to go, yield'.

Kids was not used for human children until the later 16th century, prior to that simply referring to the young of goats. As the latter we can trace the etymology to Proto-Germanic kidjom with the same meaning. Unfortunately, the trail ends there.

Synonym Etymologies O

Continuing the look at synonyms through the eyes of the etymologist, this time it is the letter O and old. While it is easy to see this as being used in the sense of 'mature', indeed the word has been used to mean just that for at least a millennium, the Proto-Indo-European root of al was used in the sense of 'grow, nourish' - effectively 'to make old'. Note the Scottish version of auld is a preservation of the Old English ald.

Mature also began in the same sense as the root of 'old' above. It came to English from Latin maturus meaning 'ripe, timely, early', the earliest root being Proto-Indo-European meh-tu 'ripeness'.

Aged, clearly from 'age' and first used as a noun. Here, rather than being related to nurturing crops, the Proto-Indo-European root aiw certainly is used in the same sense for it means 'vital force, life, eternity' depending upon the context.

Senior can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European sen meaning simply 'old'. Not used in English in the sense of 'higher rank' until the early 16th century, prior to that it was only used to denote which of two relatives (nearly always male) having the same name.

Past began as an adjective, and used in the sense of 'done with, no longer existing', not until five centuries ago was it ever used in the modern sense. The word came from 'pass', itself derived from Latin passus 'pace, step' and earlier Proto-Indo-European pete 'to spread'.

Gone is from 'go', itself a simplistic and very ancient word coming from Proto-Indo-European ghe 'to be released'.

Previous has two elements, both Latin where praevius had the same meaning and was comprised of prae 'before' and via 'road'.

Ancient is first used in English around the early 15th century. Prior to that it is seen in the Latin anteanus 'from before', and earlier still in Proto-Indo-European anti 'against' and ant 'front, forehead'.

Historic, clearly from 'historical' and thus 'history', came to English from Old French estoire 'story, chronicle'. Earlier the trail can be seen in Greek historia 'a learning' and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European weid 'to see' and also 'to know'.