precocious

English

WOTD – 1 September 2007

Etymology

From Latin praecox (“premature, precocious, ripe before time, early ripe”), from praecoquere (“to ripen beforehand, ripen fully, also boil beforehand”), from prae (“before”) + coquere (“to cook, boil, ripen”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: prĭ-kō'shəs, IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkəʊʃəs/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊʃəs

Adjective

precocious (comparative more precocious, superlative most precocious)

1. Characterized by exceptionally early development or maturity.

   The precocious plant was already blooming flowers by day 4.

   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 15:

     Now those abominations whom you call precocious boys—your little pet monsters, doctor!—and who can wonder that the world is what it is? when it is full of them—as they will have no divine time to look back upon in their own lives, how can they believe in innocence and goodness, or be other than sons of selfishness and the Devil?

   • 2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman‎^[1]:

     Scotland’s most encouraging early source of an attacking threat was Andrew Robertson as the precocious left-back charged forward to good effect on a couple of occasions.

   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 5:

     Both groups, also, have already evolved precocious (intracapsular) spore germination.

2. Exhibiting advanced skills and aptitudes at an abnormally early age.

   The precocious child began reading the newspaper at age four.

   • 1964, Sherman Brothers (lyrics and music), “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, in Mary Poppins, Walt Disney:

     Mary: Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious / If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious.

Synonyms

• tranty

Antonyms

• altricious
• serotinous

Derived terms

• precociously
• precociousness

Related terms

• precocity

Translations

characterized by exceptionally early development or maturity

• Catalan: precoç (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 早慧 (zh) (zǎohuì), 早熟 (zh) (zǎoshú), 超齡 (zh) (chāo líng, literally “超乎其年齡的”)

  Min Nan: lêng-lāi

• Danish: tidlig udviklet (development), tidlig moden (maturity)
• Dutch: vroegrijp (nl), vroegvolwassen
• Finnish: varhaiskypsä (fi), pikkuvanha (fi)
• French: précoce (fr)
• Georgian: ნაადრევი (naadrevi), მალემზარდი (malemzardi)
• German: frühreif (de)
• Greek: πρώιμος (el) (próimos)
• Irish: seanchríonna
• Italian: precoce (it)

• Latin: praecox
• Manx: appee roish yn traa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bråmoden, tidlig moden (no)

  Nynorsk: bråmoden, tidleg moden

• Portuguese: precoce (pt)
• Russian: скороспелый (ru) (skorospelyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: на̀да̄рен, прѐрано развијен

  Roman: nàdāren (sh) m, prèrano razvijen

• Spanish: precoz
• Swedish: brådmogen (sv)
• Ukrainian: скорости́глий m (skorostýhlyj), скороспі́лий m (skorospílyj)
• Westrobothnian: fyrikömmän

exhibiting advanced skills at an abnormally early age

• Bulgarian: преждевременно развит (preždevremenno razvit)
• Catalan: precoç (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 早慧 (zh) (zǎohuì)

• Dutch: vroegrijp (nl), vroegvolwassen
• Finnish: pikkuvanha (fi), edistynyt (fi), etevä (fi)
• French: précoce (fr)
• Georgian: ნაადრევად განვითარებული (naadrevad ganvitarebuli)
• German: frühreif (de), altklug (de)

• Hungarian: koraérett (hu)
• Irish: seanchríonna
• Manx: appee roish yn traa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bråmoden, tidlig moden (no)

  Nynorsk: bråmoden, tidleg moden

• Russian: не по годам ра́звитый (ne po godam rázvityj)
• Spanish: precoz
• Swedish: brådmogen (sv)

See also

• prodigy
• apricot

Further reading

• “precocious” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “precocious” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• precocious at OneLook Dictionary Search