I am doing a paper on the history of adolescents and I have to find out who first used the term adolescent and when. I have found out that it is from a latin word and first used in 1440, but I have not been able to find out who and in what context. I am not very good with internet search and would appreciate any help you can give me Tammy

-- Tammy Pratt (ponytam21@yahoo.ca), March 13, 2005

Answers

According to the Oxford English Dictionary:

[as n. a. Fr. adolescent (15th c.) ad. L. adolscent-em growing up, a youth, prop. pr. pple. of adolsc-re to grow up: see ADULT. The subst. use is the commoner in L., and much earlier in Fr. and Eng. than the adj.; the latter is probably taken direct from L.]

A. n. A person in the age of adolescence; a youth between childhood and manhood.

1482 Monk of Evesham (1869) 103 A certen adolescente a yonge man. 1495 CAXTON Vitas Patr. (W. de Worde) I. li. 104bb, He admonested..the adolescentes as his chyldren. 1815 W. TAYLOR in Monthly Rev. LXXVI. 498 Conveying, without indecency, to adolescents many facts concerning the human frame.

B. adj. Growing towards maturity; advancing from childhood to maturity.

1785 COWPER Tirocin. 219 Schools, unless discipline were doubly strong, Detain their adolescent charge too long. 1809 J. BARLOW Columb. VIII. 149 Unfold each day some adolescent grace. 1878 B. TAYLOR Pr. Deukal. III. i. 100, I see Near manhood in thy adolescent limbs.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), March 13, 2005.

Hi Tammy, I suppose you mean the history of the concept of adolescence and the cultural ideas associated with the use of the term. I do not know the answer to your question, but I do believe that adolescence (a late growth spurt that leads in a few years to sexual maturity)is a real phenomenon (not just a social construct) Athat could even be unique to humans (or at least rare in other animal species). Today adolescence and teenagers are hot topics in anthropology and psychology. For example, anthropologists are particularly interested in when in hominid (i.e., the human family) evolutionary history did the adolescent growth spurt first appear. Psychologists are particularly interested in biological developmental characteristics of adolescents and how they influence their behavior, thoughts, and emotions (e.g., sex hormone changes, melatonin hormone changes and accompanying adolescent sleep changes). Radical neural pruning (after a preadolescent growth spurt) in the prefrontal cortex of the brain may help explain some disorganized thought and inappropriate risk taking. The prefrontal area continues major development into the 20's. Current texts in anthropology or developmental psychology may be useful. I hope this helps. Paul

-- Paul Kleinginna (prk@frontiernet.net), March 13, 2005.