different between young vs child

English

Etymology

From Middle English yong, yonge, from Old English ?eong, from Proto-West Germanic *jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?yuh?n??ós, from *h?yuh?en- (“young”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) enPR: y?ng, IPA^(key): /j??/
• Rhymes: -??

Adjective

young (comparative younger, superlative youngest)

1. In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.

2. At an early stage of existence or development; having recently come into existence.
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 23,^[1]

     […] while the Fears of the People were young, they were encreas’d strangely by several odd Accidents […]

3. (Not) advanced in age; (far towards or) at a specified stage of existence or age.
   • 1906, Robertson Nicoll, Tis Forty Years Since, quoted in T. P.'s Weekly, volume 8, page 462:

     And thou, our Mother, twice two centuries young,

     Bend with bright shafts of truth thy bow fresh-strung.

4. Junior (of two related people with the same name).
   • 1841, The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art:

     The young Mr. Chester must be in the wrong, and the old Mr. Chester must be in the right.

5. (of a decade of life) Early.
   • 1922, E. Barrington, “The Mystery of Stella” in “The Ladies!” A Shining Constellation of Wit and Beauty, Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, pp. 40-41,^[2]

     […] Miss Hessy is as pretty a girl as eye can see, in her young twenties and a bit of a fortune to boot.

   • 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, London: Macmillan, Part One, Chapter 1,

     Ephraim would be in his young thirties.

   • 2008, Alice Fisher, “Grown-up chic is back as high street goes upmarket,” The Guardian, 20 January, 2008,^[3]

     […] while this may appeal to older, better-off shoppers, vast numbers, especially those in their teens and young twenties, still want fast, cheap fashion.

6. Youthful; having the look or qualities of a young person.

7. Of or belonging to the early part of life.

8. (obsolete) Having little experience; inexperienced; unpracticed; ignorant; weak.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act I, Scene 1,^[4]

     Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.

Synonyms

• (born not long ago): youthful, junior; see also Thesaurus:young
• (having qualities of a young person): youthful, juvenile
• (of or belonging to the early part of life): juvenile
• (inexperienced): underdeveloped, undeveloped, immature

Antonyms

• (born not long ago): old, aged, grown up, senior, youthless, elderly
• (having qualities of a young person): aged, old, youthless, mature, elderly
• (of or belonging to the early part of life): senior, mature, elderly
• (inexperienced): mature, experienced, veteran

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

young (usually uncountable, plural young)

1. People who are young; young people, collectively; youth.

   The young of today are well-educated.

(Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)

1. Young or immature offspring (especially of an animal).

2. (rare, possibly nonstandard) An individual offspring; a single recently born or hatched organism.
   • 2010, Mammal Anatomy: An Illustrated Guide, page 21:

     There is a logic in this behavior: a mother will not come into breeding condition again unless her young is ready to be weaned or has died, so killing a baby may hasten […]

Translations

Related terms

• youth

Verb

young (third-person singular simple present youngs, present participle younging, simple past and past participle younged)

1. (informal or demography) To become or seem to become younger.
2. (informal or demography) To cause to appear younger.
3. (geology) To exhibit younging.

Middle English

Adjective

young

1. Alternative form of yong

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ch?ld, ch???ld, IPA^(key): /t??a?ld/, /?t??a?.?ld/
• Rhymes: -a?ld

Etymology 1

From Middle English child, from Old English ?ild (“fetus; female baby; child”), from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz (“womb; fetus”), from Proto-Indo-European *?elt- (“womb”). Cognate with Danish kuld (“brood, litter”), Swedish kull (“brood, litter”), Icelandic kelta, kjalta (“lap”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (kilþei, “womb”), Sanskrit ???? (jarta), ????? (jártu, “vulva”).

Alternative forms

• childe (archaic)
• (plural): childrens (intentionally incorrect, nonstandard); childs (nonstandard, rare)

Noun

child (plural children or (dialectal or archaic) childer)

1. A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority)
2. (obsolete, specifically) A female child, a girl.
3. (with possessive) One's direct descendant by birth, regardless of age; a son or daughter.

4. (cartomancy) The thirteenth Lenormand card.
5. (figuratively) A figurative offspring, particularly:
   1. A person considered a product of a place or culture, a member of a tribe or culture, regardless of age.
   2. Anything derived from or caused by something.
   3. (computing) A data item, process, or object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another.
      • 2011, John Mongan, Noah Kindler, Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed:

        The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).

6. Alternative form of childe (“youth of noble birth”)
7. (mathematics) A subordinate node of a tree

Synonyms

• (young person): See Thesaurus:child, Thesaurus:boy, & Thesaurus:girl
• (offspring): See offspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughter, binary clone, progeny, hybrid
• (descendant): See descendant
• (product of a place or era): product, son (male), daughter (female)

Antonyms

• (daughter or son): father, mother, parent
• (person below the age of adulthood): adult
• (data item, process or object in a subordinate role): parent

Derived terms

Related terms

• chield
• Child
• childe
• Childermas

Translations

See also

• orling

Etymology 2

From Middle English childen, from the noun child.

Verb

child (third-person singular simple present childs, present participle childing, simple past and past participle childed)

1. (archaic, transitive, intransitive) To give birth; to beget or procreate.

Translations

Further reading

• Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (accessed November 2007).
• American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company (2003).

Middle English

Alternative forms

• chyld, chylde, childe, chelde, cild

Etymology

From Old English ?ild, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?i?ld/

Noun

child (plural children or childre or child or childres)

1. A baby, infant, toddler; a person in infancy.
2. A child, kid; a young person.
3. An offspring, one of one's progeny.
4. A childish or stupid individual.
5. (Chrisitanity) The Christ child; Jesus as a child.
6. (figuratively) A member of a creed (usually with the religion in the genitive preposing it)
7. A young male, especially one employed as an hireling.
8. A young noble training to become a knight; a squire or childe.
9. The young of animals or plants.
10. A material as a result or outcome.

Related terms

Descendants

• English: child
• Scots: child; chield

References

• “ch?ld, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.