young

pronunciation

How to pronounce young in British English: UK [jʌŋ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce young in American English: US [jʌŋ] word us audio image

Noun:

any immature animal
young people collectively
Adjective:

(used of living things especially persons) in an early period of life or development or growth
(of crops) harvested at an early stage of development; before complete maturity

Word Origin

young: young: [OE] Young is part of a widespread family of words that go back to Indo-European *juwngkós ‘young’ (others include Welsh ieuanc, Irish ōg, and Sanskrit juvaçás). And this in turn was derived from *juwen-, which produced Latin juvenis (source of English junior, juvenile, etc), Lithuanian jaunas, Russian junyj, Bulgarian jun, etc.The Indo-European adjective passed into prehistoric Germanic as *juwunggaz. This was later contracted to *junggaz, which evolved into German jung, Dutch jong, Swedish and Danish ung, and English young. Youth [OE], and its relatives German Jugend and Dutch jeugd, go back to prehistoric West Germanic *jugunth-, an alteration of *juwunth-, which was derived from *juwunggaz ‘young’.=> junior, juvenile, yeoman, youth

young (n.): "young animals collectively, offspring," late 15c., from young (adj.).

young (adj.): Old English geong "youthful, young; recent, new, fresh," from Proto-Germanic *juwunga- (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Frisian jung, Old Norse ungr, Middle Dutch jonc, Dutch jong, Old High German and German jung, Gothic juggs), from PIE *yuwn-ko-, suffixed form of root *yeu- "vital force, youthful vigor" (cognates: Sanskrit yuva "young," Latin juvenis "young," Lithuanian jaunas, Old Church Slavonic junu, Russian junyj "young," Old Irish oac, Welsh ieuanc "young"). From c. 1830-1850, Young France, Young Italy, etc., were loosely applied to "republican agitators" in various monarchies; also, especially in Young England, Young America, used generally for "typical young person of the nation." For Young Turk, see Turk.

adj.

adj.