Where does “adult” come from?
Adult comes from French adulte, from Latin adultus, the past participle of adolesco meaning to grow up, derived from the prefix ad- and oleum.
adult (English): A fully grown human or animal; A person who has...
Definitions
- A fully grown human or animal; A person who has...
Ancestry of “adult”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | adulte | adult |
| 2 | Latin | adultus | magnified or piled up with for sacrifice; burned,... |
| 3 | Latin | adolesco | I grow up, become an adult; I mature; I increase... |
| 4 | Latin | adoleō | to emit an odor, smell |
| 5 | Latin | ad- | to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it... |
| 6 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 7 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 8 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |