joven
See also: Joven
Portuguese
Adjective
joven m or f (plural jovens)
- Obsolete spelling of jovem
Noun
joven m or f by sense (plural jovens)
- Obsolete spelling of jovem
Spanish
Etymology
Probably a semi-learned borrowing from Latin iuvenem, juvenem, accusative of iuvenis (compare Catalan jove, French jeune, Galician xove, Lombard joven, Italian giovane, Portuguese jovem), from Proto-Italic *juwenis, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuh₁en-. The word only appears relatively late in Spanish literature, around the early 17th century, and before that, in Medieval and Golden Age Spanish the word mozo was always used. Furthermore, phonetically, the expected result in Spanish would be *jone.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈxoben/ [ˈxo.β̞ẽn]
Audio (Colombia) (file) - Rhymes: -oben
- Syllabification: jo‧ven
Adjective
joven (plural jóvenes, superlative jovencísimo)
- young, youthful
- Mis tías son jóvenes.
- My aunts are young.
- Synonym: juvenil
- Antonyms: anciano, maduro, viejo
Noun
joven m or f (plural jóvenes)
- youth, young person, youngster
- Synonyms: muchacho, muchacha
Derived terms
- jovencillo
- jovencito
- jovenzuelo
Related terms
- juvenil
- juventud
References
- Joan Coromines; José A. Pascual (1983–1991) Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos
Further reading
- “joven”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014