Infancy

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɪnfənsi/

Definitions

1. The stage of life from birth to a few years old represents early childhood and marks the beginning of personal development and growth
2. A phase characterized by the earliest experiences of a human being and the foundational developments of life and skills
3. The initial period after birth during which a child begins physical and mental development

Etymology: Latin "infans" meant "unable to speak" before it meant "small child." Its parts are "in-," meaning "not," and "fans," the present participle of "fari," "to speak," so an infant was literally a non-speaker. The Romans used the word for very young children, and the Latin noun "infantia" grew from it to cover early childhood and, by extension, childishness. English took the word through Middle English "infancie," and the sense of the early years of life has stayed close to the Latin core. The ending "-cy" is an English suffix, found in words such as "fancy" and "constancy," which turns the adjective or noun "infant" into a noun for a state or condition. So the word names a condition, the state of being an infant, rather than the child itself.

Synonyms: babyhood, childhood, early years, nurture, immaturity

Antonyms: adulthood, maturity, senescence, adolescence, growth