pubescent

English

Etymology

From Middle French pubescent, from Latin pubescens (“to become hairy, downy, or an adult”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pjʊˈbɛs(ə)nt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsənt

Adjective

pubescent (comparative more pubescent, superlative most pubescent)

1. At or just after the age of puberty.
   • 1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 2, page 274:

     She considered me as if grasping all at once the incredible— and somehow tedious, confusing and unnecessary—fact that the distant, elegant, slender, forty-year-old valetudinarian in velvet coat sitting beside her had known and adored every pore and follicle of her pubescent body.

   • 2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xi

     […] the pubescent male brain isn't noted for its consistent engagement with reality […]

   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 6 August 2020:

     The 18-year-old [Justin] Bieber can’t quite pull off the “adult” thing just yet: His voice may have dropped a bit since the days of “Baby,” but it still mostly registers as “angelic,” and veers toward a pubescent whine at times.

2. (botany, zoology) Covered with down or fine hairs.

Derived terms

• mid-pubescent
• nonpubescent
• peripubescent
• postpubescent
• prepubescent
• pubescently
• pubescent oak
• subpubescent

Related terms

• puberty, pubescence

Translations

arriving at puberty

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: полово съзряващ (polovo săzrjavašt)
• Catalan: púber, pubescent
• Danish: kønsmoden (da)
• Dutch: puberaal (nl)
• Finnish: murrosikäinen (fi)
• French: pubère (fr), pubescent (fr)
• Galician: pubescente (gl), púbere
• German: geschlechtsreif (de)
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: pokwitaniowy
• Portuguese: pubescente (pt), púbere (pt)
• Romanian: pubescent (ro)
• Russian: половозре́лый (ru) m (polovozrélyj)
• Spanish: pubescente (es), ^{(please verify)} puberto (es) m

Noun

pubescent (plural pubescents)

1. A person going through puberty.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pubescent

Translations

person going through puberty

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: puber (nl) m
• Finnish: murrosikäinen (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Pubertierender m, Pubertierende f, Pubertier n (humorously)
• Greek: έφηβος (el) m (éfivos)
• Polish: dojrzewający nastolatek m pers, dojrzewająca nastolatka f
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: pubescent (ro) m
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• puberulent

French

Pronunciation

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

Adjective

pubescent (feminine pubescente, masculine plural pubescents, feminine plural pubescentes)

1. pubescent

Further reading

• “pubescent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Latin

Verb

pūbēscent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of pūbēscō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French pubescent.

Adjective

pubescent m or n (feminine singular pubescentă, masculine plural pubescenți, feminine/neuter plural pubescente)

1. pubescent

Declension

Declension of pubescent

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	pubescent		pubescentă	pubescenți	pubescente
	definite	pubescentul		pubescenta	pubescenții	pubescentele
genitive- dative	indefinite	pubescent		pubescente	pubescenți	pubescente
	definite	pubescentului		pubescentei	pubescenților	pubescentelor