Juvenals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Referring to young individuals in the developmental stage prior to adulthood
2. Denoting organisms that are not yet mature or fully grown
3. Pertaining to the behavior, characteristics, or biology typical of youthful life stages

Etymology: "Juvenals" is the plural of "juvenal," a noun for a young person that is far rarer than its adjective relative "juvenile." The noun comes from the Latin adjective "juvenalis," meaning youthful, which grows from "juvenis," a young man or youth. "Juvenile" descends from the same Latin roots by a parallel route. The Latin adjective is also the family name of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, the Roman satirist who wrote sixteen satires in the late first and early second centuries CE. His name likely meant something like "the young one," though the surname's original sense is uncertain. Readers usually meet the name first as a satirist's label and only later notice the plain adjective inside it.

Synonyms: youths, youngsters, adolescents, teenagers, minors

Antonyms: adults, seniors, elders, grown-ups, mature individuals