juvenile

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Relating to young people or children.

   The new law deals with juvenile crime.

2. 2
   adj

   Childish or immature in behaviour.

   His juvenile jokes annoyed everyone at the meeting.

3. 3
   noun

   A young person who is below the age of an adult, especially in legal terms.

   The juvenile was sentenced to community service rather than prison.

Borrowed from Latin iuvenīlis (“youthful; juvenile”), from iuvenis (“young; a youth”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relationship or a pertaining to). Iuvenis is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”), from *h₂óyu (“long life; lifetime”) (from *h₂ey- (“age; life”)) + *h₁én (“in”).

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