joven

See also: Joven

Portuguese

Adjective

joven m or f (plural jovens)

1. Obsolete spelling of jovem

Noun

joven m or f by sense (plural jovens)

1. Obsolete spelling of jovem

Spanish

Etymology

Probably a semi-learned borrowing from Latin iuvenem, juvenem, accusative of iuvenis (compare Catalan jove, French jeune, Galician xove, Lombard joven, Italian giovane, Portuguese jovem), from Proto-Italic *juwenis, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en-. The word only appears relatively late in Spanish literature, around the early 17th century, and before that, in Medieval and Golden Age Spanish the word mozo was always used. Furthermore, phonetically, the expected result in Spanish would be *jone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxoben/ [ˈxo.β̞ẽn]

• Audio (Colombia)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oben
• Syllabification: jo‧ven

Adjective

joven (plural jóvenes, superlative jovencísimo)

1. young, youthful

   Mis tías son jóvenes.

   My aunts are young.

   Synonym: juvenil

   Antonyms: anciano, maduro, viejo

Noun

joven m or f (plural jóvenes)

1. youth, young person, youngster

   Synonyms: muchacho, muchacha

Derived terms

• jovencillo
• jovencito
• jovenzuelo

 

Related terms

• juvenil
• juventud

 

Further reading

• “joven”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014