Word of the Day
adult
Adult
Latin
Classical Latin/ˈa.dul.tus/Modern English/ˈæd.ʌlt/
“The Romans had a past tense for growing up, and English borrowed it whole.”
The English word adult is the Latin past participle adultus lifted directly into the language sometime in the mid-16th century. Latin adultus was the completed form of the verb adolescere, meaning to grow up or mature. Adolescere combined ad- (toward) and alescere (to nourish, to grow), a verb related to alere (to feed). So an adult was, literally, someone who had finished growing.
4 stops · from Rome to England