adolescent

(ădˌl-ĕsˈənt)

adjective

1. Of, relating to, or undergoing adolescence. See Synonyms at young.
2. Characteristic of adolescence; immature: an adolescent sense of humor.

nounWord History: The adolescent grows up to become the adult. The words adolescent and adult ultimately come from forms of the same Latin word, adolēscere, meaning “to grow up.” The present participle of adolēscere, adolēscēns, from which adolescent derives, means “growing up,” while the past participle adultus, the source of adult, means “grown up.” Appropriately enough, adolescent, first recorded in English in a work written perhaps in 1440, seems to have come into the language before adult, first recorded in a work published in 1531.